Finally after completing the Mod 3 prototype & a few sucessful calm weather tests showing that you can sit and trapeze out while standing on the inflatable pontoon this happened!
Last wednesday we had a no-name Kona storm with 92 knot gusts as recorded at Kaneohe Marine Air Base. The Hobie leaped from the floating dock in the forground, over the red Force 5, missed the implanted steel dock pipes & landed with one hull on the next dock & the other hull with the wing & pontoon on rip-rac rocks.
I think the inflatble pontoon must have help cushion the impact, but the 1-7/8 inch O.D. aluminum Hobie tube broke off 15 inches from the bottom - right where a 1-1/4 inch square piece of wood was rammed inside the tube! I never knew that the wing tubes were reinforced this way.
I guess I must buy a new Hobie Left-wing Assembly (about $370 + shipping?) or are there other alternatives that anyone can suggest?