Two questions:  1. Have you ever used a Hobie Mirage?  2. What improvement are you hoping to get out of your dory?

There is no doubt that you could add one or two mirage drives to a NE Dory.  You would have to build raised wells into the boat because there is no way to make the installation water tight.  You will also have to develop a system to plug the holes when you remove the drives because left open they would be a huge source of drag.  All of this would add weight and subtract interior space from your boat.

The Mirage drive can be a problem ergonomically.  You do not really pedal a Mirage, you pump it.  The motion is not rotary like a bike, it is linear like a stair stepper.  Since your feet are nearly level with your seat, the motion is more like a “recumbent stair stepper” if there is such a thing.  For short durations at an easy pace, the motion is just fine, but it is not good for exercise.  When you pump hard and/or go for a long time, you put a lot of pressure on your lower back/bottom which leads to numbness.  Many who ride bikes do not like the motion because you can’t use all of your leg muscles like you do with the rotary motion of a bike.

When in place, the drives themselves are a considerable source of drag, so you won’t sail well with them in place.  Under human power, I can’t imagine that a Mirage powered NE Dory would be any faster than one rowed.  Actually, I bet that it would be slower.

From my words above, you may think that I am a Hobie Hater but that could not be further from the truth.  We owned 3 Mirage kayaks over an eight-year period and they were great fun.  They are great water toys that can be paddled, pumped (pedaled) or sailed.  They are not great at any of those but they are decent at all of them.  They make an exceptional fishing platform and are a really good tender for a small cruising sailboat.  I would still have one today but my garage was full and I needed room to start the 15’ skiff that I am currently building.

What am I hoping to achieve? A human powered trolling motor.

   Now that would be an excellent reason for putting a Mirage into the NE Dory, as long as you are talking slow speed trolling.  It would save you a lot of thought/headache if you could get pictures/drawings of how the drive mounts in the Waterlust Canoes.  I would also suggest paying close attention to the seating arrangement in the Hobie Pro-Angler boats. 

I'm just thinking out loud right now. I was just wondering if it would work. Come winter I might look a little deeper, well see.

>>It would save you a lot of thought/headache if you could get pictures/drawings of how the drive mounts in the Waterlust Canoes.

I've asked for that several times, even indicating a willingness to pay a nominal fee for a dimensioned drawing but no dice. John, you're missing a sales opportunity.

Laszlo

I was looking at the Waterlust canoes. If you open the link for the study plans it shows a look at the center console. Of course no dimensions are displayed, I wouldn't expect that. That center console looks like it would not be hard at all to adapt to the NE Dory.

   Slow speed trolling? Some of my fondest memories are of trolling for walleyes with my father in northern Wisconsin in  60's. For trolling, you can't beat a rowboat. You definitely want to be facing aft -- where the strikes are going to occur.

 I definitely think it is doable! They put them in the Waterlust canoes. I own a Hobie TI and the hull weight is about 180 lbs, which is well above the Dory. I can pedal along at about 4 knots with ease, but I would prefer to sail! I just use them when there is no wind or while tacking.  The newer model pedals also have a reverse now, which would be useful for getting away from a dock. There are also plugs you can purchase when you don't want the pedals installed.  I usually keep them in all the time and have not noticed any issue with drag. You can extend one pedal, which keep them flat up agains the bottom. You can check out the Hobie site for the spare parts. I would be happy to take some measurements when I get the boat down in a few weeks.  I  busy working on my PocketShip build! 😀

When I went to the Florida demo this year, I brought my Wood Duck 14 which I have added a Mirage Drive trunk. As luck would have it, Dillon was there. I asked him about the Waterlust canoes held in the Mirage drive and he said that when the drive was shipped to CLC, it included the hold down clips. When I started my conversion, I went to my local Hobie dealer and tried to get a pair of those clips. We went through every page of the parts catalog but could not find them. I've searched online but Google has not been my friend. If you can get them, the trunk is easy. Just build one wide and long enough for the drive, attach the clips at the bottom on either side of the hole in the right place and drop the drive down into the clips. If, like me, you can't find them, you will have to create a trunk that holds the drive in the right place. I have created a document describing how to do this. I could post a link if anyone is interested.

Here is a link to the forum post describing my Wood Duck. It shows the trunk the document describs how to build:

http://www.clcboats.com/forum/clcforum/thread/30159.html

   There is a Hobie Parts and Accessories catalog. 

These look like the clips for the drive from what I can see. 

81611101 CLICK AND GO ASSY (L)

81611201 CLICK AND GO ASSY (R)

81535001 MIRAGE CASSETTE PLUG - this is the plug to fill the hole. 

You should be able to order from a Hobie Dealer. If you have issues, get on the Hobie Forum. They have Hobie representatives that participate. I think his name is Matt Miller. They love to do modifications to the Hobies! 

Hope this helps. 

Thanks 

Ron

Those appear to be the correct parts. They are available on Amazon ($47 each). Here are the links to the parts:

https://www.amazon.com/Hobie-Click-N-Go-Assy-Right-81611201/dp/B008VGQD5Q

https://www.amazon.com/Hobie-Click-N-Go-Assy-Left-81611101/dp/B008VGQCY8/ref=pd_sim_200_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B008VGQCY8&pd_rd_r=EYM6BY86WJ2WE2CJS4HV&pd_rd_w=RsL88&pd_rd_wg=bYeX8&psc=1&refRID=EYM6BY86WJ2WE2CJS4HV