So I bought a Hobie Eclipse Mirage...

[stoneaxe]

So when are you going to put it on something sexy?

[PonoBill]

I think that's going to wait until I see just one Wells Island.

[stoneaxe]

When did that ever stop you!

[headmount]

I wore leggings today to protect the silky skin on my legs.  Thought you'd chuckle.  But I'm not kidding.  I really did.

[rkdjones]

I took a test drive on a 12' Eclipse yesterday.  I'm a so-so flatwater paddler, and paddle a 12-6 Ron House and 14' Laird Bark board.  I've never used a Hobie Drive but have been impressed by the reported efficiency of the drive (a large blade moving slowly produces the least turbulence and hence efficiently transfers work to motion: why fish have fins and not propellers).

I felt like there was too little resistance in the fins and it felt like I wasn't using my legs very efficiently.  It probably could be remedied with larger fins.  That would drive the board faster but once you hit hull speed (4.6 kts for the 12' board) it would be like trying to push the board through molasses.  Now, I wasn't going 4.6 kts, so I could have used larger fins and still kept it under hull speed.  But it also suggests to me that putting a drive on a long board might be really sweet.  A long catamaran design, like the Standamaran could be incredibly fast with a larger drive fins.

A while back I tried a one-off contraption made by Easy Rider: a stand up board based on a kayak with an ama for stability.  It seemed quite questionable in that falling would possibly do damage to ama and paddler.  But with handlebars, this problem disappears.

Lastly, a comment about the Hobie drive in general.  Though more efficient than a propeller, a Hobie drive is a single speed device, while pedals can be geared to maximize the coupling of legs to drivetrain.  This is an inherent limitation of the drive.

Robert

[PonoBill]

Yes to all of that. The single speed aspect is not quite such a big deal. I think it's inevitable that the drive will feel like it's not doing enough since you are using weight to drive it. I want bigger flippers already, hopefully the huge ones used on the Tandem Island kayak will work on this drive.

I'm enjoying the thing though. It's a hell of a workout. I need to think the elliptical element through a bit. The handlebars are a big piece of the stability, necessary because of the rocking motion caused by the weight shifts. I need them to be more restrained than I intended to make them. I was just going to mount a pivot and make an L shaped handle with a bottom roller that pressed on the pedals. Very simple. Use bungees to hold the shafts up. Now I'm thinking that either the bungees need to be very stout or something else needs to make the handles useful for balance.

[stoneaxe]

I'm thinking of the Frankenstein child combo of the Hobie mirage with the Geezer Foil MkIII.........

[Quickbeam]

I finally got to “test paddle” a Hobie Mirage Eclipse today. Was faster than I thought it would be and a very good workout for the legs. I didn’t feel any kind of core or upper body workout though. But then, I only had it out for a couple of minutes. Hardly enough time to make any kind of definitive statements. Was fun, but I think I’ll stick to my regular paddle boards. 

[PonoBill]

I think they really need to add in core. I'll get on that real soon now.

[spirit4earth]

That looks like a blast!  Do you turn the board by using handlebar levers?

[Quickbeam]

Hi Spirit,

How are you? And yes, that’s exactly how you turn it. It takes a couple of seconds to get use to, as instead of leaning you into the turn, it throws you away from the turn. Again, it doesn’t take long, but it does take a couple of times to get used to it. At least it did for me.

[Weasels wake]

Haven't been around here for awhile, and just stumbled across this thread, and I have to say, "I'll be damned".

I was wondering if anyone here was going to take that plunge.  I saw those being touted on a morning LA news show (KTLA) about 6 months ago, and was impressed at how hard an obviously experienced paddler was paddling, just to keep up with the people on those things who didn't seem to be working as hard.  It was in a lagoon on glassy water.  Interesting, it goes to the old adage "can't judge a book by it's cover".
But,,,,,,,,,,,, I've got too many toys already.

[PonoBill]

It's silly fast considering the board design, which is wide enough to make it almost untippable. Hobie is a very smart marketing company, they don't focus on performance in their kayak development, they focus on usability by the largest market segments. This thing is not really for us, except it's so much fun. I keep looking at my poor butchered up 18' speedboard, thinking how fast that thing would be with a mirage drive and handles that let the "paddler" use their core and weight completely. People in moderately good shape generate more horsepower on an elliptical machine than they can on a bicycle with less perceived effort. That's one reason why ellipticals are such effective workout devices. Of course a bicycle with an experienced rider generates more, but for the average joe, the mirage drive is ideal.

[stoneaxe]

Think weight is an advantage on a mirage drive? Seems like it would be far easier for me to generate power with a mirage than someone smaller......give me some BIG wings.....and lets go waterskiing.......

[bing]

Bill - would you recommend one as an addition to a quiver?  They look kind of goofy but fun.  Also - keep us posted if they can downwind.