: It has been on my possible project list for a while. I still haven't tried
: the Mirage, but the drive unit looks like it has real possibilities.

: What is your opinion of the Hobie pedal system?

I like it, but it has taken some getting used to. It's not like pedaling a recumbent bike. Pedals move back and forth rather than in a circle. The drive itself is well-made (though I had to re-drill two of the adjustment holes on mine) and very sturdy. The flippers fold up against the bottom of the hull when one of the pedals is advanced all the way, making it easy to enter shallow water without pulling up the drive unit. The unit does not do well with accidental bottom contact when under load. I encountered a rock while pedaling fairly vigorously. I bent the stainless steel rod in the leading edge of one of the flippers pretty significantly and could not unbend it by hand. However, it was easy to fix when I dismantled the unit and put the rod into a vise.

The other potential disadvantage, compared to the SpinFin (of which I just learned today) is that the Hobie unit is designed for through-hull mounting in a sit-on-top. The pedals pivot at floor level, and don't lend themselves to the sort of trunk which allows the SpinFin to be used in a standard hull. It sounds to me as though the SpinFin might allow faster speeds or more efficient conversion of human energy into boat motion, and using a SpinFin would be more like riding a recumbent bike.