I have a Hobie 18 and solo quite a bit of the time. I bought a solo~right before last season and have been very happy with it. I have had no problem with righting the boat, usually done in just a few minutes. I did try a couple of times on high wind days to right without the solo~right, but after wasting several minutes and energy on trying to do this, I whipped out the solo~right and was underway in no time. I have not had a problem losing my balance on the pole.

I also solo sailed with another Hobie 18 and he outweighed me by about 20 lbs. He had one of those useless buckets that you hang over your shoulder. I say useless because it really was. He is nicknamed Captain Capsize, so he had plenty of trials with the bucket. There were several times when I would be sailing back and forth literally dozens of times while he fumbled with this thing. One time was clocked at more than 20 minutes attempting to right the boat. Hanging on a righting line for that long is extremely tiring and had he been alone, very dangerous. More often than not, I would end up sailing close by and lifting his mast out of the water. This season, he is using a solo~right.....hmmm, wonder why!?

As far as stowage, I keep mine under the tramp held with a clip and a fine line at the transom. Works great, is right in front of me when I tip and is pretty easy to put back.

All in all, I am very happy with the solo~right and only have a minor design modification to make it even faster to right, but haven't implemented it yet. Once I do, it should cut the time in half.

Happy sailin'!!

Kip
TheMightyHobie18
Boise, ID