Advantages of sailing with wing rails

If you've spent long hours hunched up on your Hobie trampoline or struggling to hook on and off your trapeze wire, you're going to enjoy the comfort of sailing with wing rails. The product was designed by a 64 year old Hobie sailor, who wanted a better ride -- especially during solo sails.

The wing rails let you ease up into a hiked out position over the water, giving you leverage like you'd expect from trapezing. You can sit on the rail in a more relazed position, with zero back strain and no real need for a trap harness.

You can keep the harness if you like and can stay hooked onto the trap wire while seated...or forget about trapping for a while. It's up to you!

You'll notice is easier to get into position as you tack or gybe, because you are simply scooting from one rail to the other. This can translate to quicker tacks and gybes, with no trap wires to manage. For even more leverage, you can hook into your trapeze and lean back or stand on the rail to add super leverage in strong winds. This is a nice feature for solo sailors aiming to keep the hull from flying too high at max speeds.

The wing rail also works nicely as a backrest while running downwind or on light wind days -- or simply to take a break from sitting up on the rail. It feels like leaning back on a chair.

An option hiking strap can be added between the wing arms on each side of the boat, creating back support strap (though just leaning back on the rail may be enough). The rails are narrow, (4 inches with the padding), which provides enough seating surface. If you want a a few extra inches of seat width and extra padding, that is possible by upgrading from the wing rails to wing seats.

The wing rails/seats are sturdy and will accomodate the weight of two sailors (max total 450 lbs recommended). This gives more comfort to the skipper and crew as well.

Wings can also help with righting your boat in a capsize. Throw a righing line up and over the wing and you gain extra leverage to pull the hull back into the water.

Your functional "deck space" will simply feel bigger, too. The wings give you an extra 22 inches outward from your trampoline -- that's 22 more inches on each side!

Will it make your boat feel heavy? The complete set weighs under 40 pounds. So it does add some weight, but if you are a solo sailor or have a light crew, the extra weight can be helpful in leveling out the boat. The design is fairly streamlined, and should not slow you down.

What about flying a hull? It's easy. The windward hull can fly high before the leeward rail gets near the water surface.

And when it's time go racing with your Hobie fleet, you can easily remove the wing rails to keep your boat 100% class legal. You won't need any tools to add or remove your wing seats in under 10 minutes. All components detatch. Your boat goes right back to its factory specs.

But what about trailering? Depending on trailering laws in you area, you can leave the wings strapped in place during trailering, or remove them until you reach your sailing destination.

Let us know what you think. We love to hear your ideas and questions.

Info@Catwinger.com