It was one of those beautiful sunny Florida weekends that would have been perfect except for the fact there wasn't any wind (for sailing). So I decided to get on the water anyway and paddle around thinking there may be a slight breeze at least on the water. It was almost zero wind so it got me thinking about making a barber hauler for my AI. The weakness of the hobie Adventure island sailing kayak is the sail doesn't have a boom (but the advantage of not having a boom is it won't hit you in the head). When sailing downwind, the sail doesn't open up quite as well as it could. A barber hauler pulls the sail outward and keeps the sail in a better position to catch the wind. If the sail is bent then it's not efficient.
So after spending a few hours paddling around (with another family of dolphins I might add), I returned to design a budget barber hauler system. I bought a set of oar locks (that clamp on a 1.5" pipe) that attached to the ends of my akas with a ring to pull the line through. At the end of the line is a clip that I can reel in or pull the sail outward. I haven't tried other than in my driveway but I'm pretty happy with the design.
The Festivus pole was also built so let the festivities begin !
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