Getting ready to take the new AI out... stoked.  Was wondering if I could modify the sailport when not sailing to accept a scotty mount, so this is what I came up with: 

I purchased a 2.5" hose extender for a shop vac for 8 bucs.  These are slightly tapered, which helps actually.  There is one 2.5" end, and one 2" end.  Then for $9 I purchased a scotty threaded flush deck mount, which has a diameter of 2.5".  Then I purchased a plastic cap for the tube that fits a 2.5" tube for $9.  I got this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NQQNLZJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. 

Basically, I mounted the scotty deck mount to the lid by drilling a 1" hole in the exact center.  Then I filed the hole down just enough to screw the scotty mount in.  The backing nut for the scotty mount also has a diameter of 2.5", so to get it to fit inside the lid and mount tightly , I had to grind down the flange all the way to the hex faces...  took some work, but once I got the nut ground down, I easily screwed it together tightly.  Then, I just put the cap on the 2.5" end of the tube, cut the other end of the tube down to size, and that's it!  It fits snugly in the sail port, keeps the bearings in place, and more importantly, I can mount my compass up front.  The compass up front is one of the best things ever to have on a kayak, imho.

Anyway, not sure if anyone will find this useful, but its pretty clean and very nice to turn the sailport into something I can use when not sailing. 

Best,
Nolan

  

Took my three kids to the game last night... Good game.  Giants won.  Leaving the game, we're crossing 3rd and King and right in front of my kids, a red sedan hits and runs completely over a woman, then hauls ass away leaving her laying in the middle of the street moaning and totally messed up.  Horrific thing to witness and my kids may need some therapy or something.  We were all shaken by this, and we can find anything on the news or internet about the condition of the victim or if they caught the douchebag driver.  My kids never want to go back to the city... Such a shame.   

Hi everyone, I have to run up near Oroville for some afternoon business in a couple weeks and was thinking of taking my 9 yr old son with me.  If we leave early, we could get 3-4 hours of fishing in before.  Question is, where to go?? and what/how to target from shore??  Any suggestions for the best way to get the little man on a fish? 
Nolan 
 

Free to a good home.  Pickup or NCKA express only please. 

Good morning all,
Beautiful morning out here at bolinas.  Yard sale at the launch just to the west of the ramp, I suck.  Tide is in, so prob no hope in finding some stuff, but I will pay $100 to the person that locates my shark shield and returns it to me.  I'll scour the beach when I land later, at low tide, hopefully with chrome.  Fucked up both of my reels, so looks like I'll be rebuilding those later.  Lost a downrigger ball and my shark shield.  Please let me know if you find it.  For now, it's fishing time.  At 40 fow right out front...

Hi everyone,
I currently use a Harbor freight bed extender to transport the yak in my Tacoma.  It would be nice if I could use the L piece of the BE as a bike rack support by putting the short end into the hitch, and the bike rack onto the long end.  All I would need is a bike rack with a 2" female port.  Rather than buying the whole hitch bike rack setup with the hitch adapter, does anyone know where I could only buy the top rack piece I need? 

Cant believe a report hasnt been posted here yet, but not because yesterday was such a beautiful morning at Bolinas or because there were so few salmon caught (unless you were mooching in 25 FOW near the beach  ).

The reason I am surprised, is because there was a very aggressive powerboater doing donuts around all of the kayakers about 2 miles out near the dux buoy in the middle of the fog.  He was mad about people parking in the parking lot in Bolinas.    I shot a video with my Nikon (super clear) of most of our encounter and Ill post it later once I convert all of the files from Nikon to internet.  I will also be filing a complaint with the coast guard and the Bolinas Sheriff's dept providing my video.  This incident was already posted on LCKA with video, so thanks to Jess  .  Im not on facebook, never have been, otherwise I would post my video there too. 

My opinion is probably more measured than most... yeah, there were a lot of people in Bolinas - surfers, kayakers, and beach-goers... it was packed.  Also, it was pretty obvious he wasnt going to DO anything other than intimidate.  But, I have never experienced such a threatening encounter on the water.  He came within 10 feet of my bow doing circles around us letting us deal with his wake while yelling at us.     I hope some others also got good footage or pics.  I would really appreciate for this guy to face some consequence for his actions.  There are much better ways to conduct oneself. 

Could someone tell me the distance between the troughs of the hull on a 2019 outback?  In other words, If I wanted to make a rack using 4" PVC, how far apart would the two PVC pipes need to be to fit in the grooves of the tri hull?