Rent our Hobie Island Adventure sailing kayaks with instructions how to sail and paddle.
The Adventure Island is indeed a trimaran, with two amas that are easily attached or removed via the metal crossbeams. The amas can be folded in toward the boat — easily done while the kayaker is seated in the boat — to bring the boat up closely alongside a dock, ramp, or beach.
When the amas are out, the boat is exceedingly stable, and even when the amas are folded in it's much more stable than other kayaks. Even deliberate attempts to rock it, while standing up in the cockpit, fail to elicit much side-to-side movement. Anyone who dislikes the instability of most kayaks will find the Adventure Island a rock-solid delight.
The Adventure Island can be paddled like a conventional kayak, or it can be propelled by pedaling Hobie's "MirageDrive," which uses bicycle pedals that operate much like a stair-stepper, which oscillate underwater flippers similar to a penguin's. The flippers are surprisingly efficient at moving the boat through the water, and turned out to be very quiet. Women generally don't have as much upper body strength as men, and the pedals allow us to use the larger muscles in the legs to power the boat.