Smarter than me for sure

From 1972 to whenever I last fished maybe 4 or 5 years ago I fished solo and no radio device until cell phones came along

No other safety gear except water rope compass and knife Unless I�m forgetting something

Also no pfd until sometime after 2000 can�t remember but was glad I had it a few times

Cowells 20-25 and Princeton jetty 25-30!

We�ll tour the coast tomorrow maybe SCruz to Pacifica just to see it

LM might be surfable and Friday should be good

One of the craziest forecasts is Cowells 20-25

We are doing the local road trip just to see it and look for a sheltered spot to surf, maybe LM or steamer if not too washed out

Even the hook is saying 15-20

The glass might be strong enough but the rod holders are mounted with little screws driven directly into the glass

Reinforcing the glass seems like a safe enough thing if it�s done right This isn�t a design where the idea of having sacrificial parts would work. If mine had failed in a typical rough water situation I would�ve had a long lonesome swim home

My profisha was the first shipped to the USA and an early version so they might have beefed up the glass in some spots since When I bought mine there were no stealth�s here to look at so I first had a series of calls with Bruce (Brett�s father) who designed or at least engineered the build. I was mainly concerned whether it would work trolling weight for salmon which is my only fishing mode

The yak is designed as a double hull which is required in South Africa for all vessels

If the rod holders fail it opens the sealed hull to water and no such thing as pool noodles in this case since there�s no access to the interior. Oddly when I communicated w Brett about one repair he suggested cutting a hatch into the sealed area to get access

Glass is strong material but screws threaded into it is too weak of an approach for a spot that will be under stress. Definitely not good for pulling any weight. When mine pulled out it came out so easily it was obvious the little bit of trolling I had done w the rod behind me was a mistake. Think I only tried that once

Either pop rivets or stainless screws/nuts would be better way to go

All this stealth talk has me thinking about getting my yak ready for fishing again

Ill throw another little note in there

When the rod holder on mine came out it didn�t take much force, I was just pushed in against the pier and my rod bent over until the rod holder pulled out of the yak if you can picture that. I had trolled salmon a few times with rod behind me so there would already have been that stress on the screws, but screws threaded into glass isn�t the strongest way to mount them imo Must be the trolling in SAfrica is shallow w no weight so no need for more

I can�t remember what all I did when I repaired mine but if memory serves I reinforced and then epoxied a nut on the underside for a screw to thread into. I don�t think there was much room to turn the holders in any different position, but if you did enough reinforcement it wouldn�t matter

If I was doing it now I�d reinforce as much as I could then epoxy the screws sticking up from underneath instead, (which would be much easier than getting the nut in the right position underneath) in which case would just be a matter of getting the right screw length and maybe one of those cap style nuts whatever they�re called

In fact when I get around to doing some tlc on mine I may do a redo and seriously reinforce them so they can hold up to trolling a 2 lb ball which I don�t think they�re built for

And maybe some other simple mods while Im at it

Good reminder why you should stow everything before you launch and land

My 575 had similar damage when I got blown against the old pier coming in at hmb with rods still in the holders

The rod holders on Stealths are one of the weak points in their design Basically just screws going into fiberglass

Pliny in sf

Be ready for next salmon season

PM an offer on either or both