Hobie AI 2015 Rigging

Now that I've gone over to the dark side...

I am most likely going to do 90% of my fishing with no sail and one ama. I'm looking around for various ideas on how to rig my AI. I like Salty's H-Rail idea, it seems good for trolling? How are you liking it so far, Salty? Any chance of fish ripping it out of the rod holder (without human error)?

I've more or less decided on a Lowrance Hook-5 FF, mounted as far forward as I can reach on the right side (I fish off the left side and the amas will be on the right.

Right side ama will have a trampoline. I'm trying to decide how to hold my rods, net and gaff. I was thinking of putting PVC pipe in the flush mount rod holders in the back, so I can add a few more places to hold them?

Any kind of rigging that you're really happy with, doesn't need to be AI specific if it will work on an AI too, I'd appreciate it. Thanks! I'm in that enjoyable "figure out everything on new kayak"  stage haha.

Congrats.
- I got Pat R mount. It's as solid as it can get. I know most AI owners on this board has his mount.
- Consider FF on the left. You see all those sailing lines one the right. 

I thought about it being on the left, but I was concerned about re-entry if I ever take it out by itself? I'm taking it out tomrorow so i'll have a look.

Can you link the Pat R mount? I'm looking for it and not finding it.

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=66389.msg746476#msg746476

Tell him where you want to mount it. Aka bars vs rear cross bars.

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=66389.msg746476#msg746476

Tell him where you want to mount it. Aka bars vs rear cross bars.

Thanks Chet, I appreciate your input! These definitely look like the ticket.

The Railblaza rail mounts also fit the large aka bars as well.  Had 5 or 6 mounted on my AI

Yup.
+1 on Pat R mounts.  Solid 

Picked up some mounts from Pat, they are great. The 2015+2016 AI needs smaller FF mounts but it's an easy fix (and Pat mentioned adjusting it for the future).

I got the FF install kit from hobie and love that I can install the battery in the rear hatch. I had to drill a new hole for the transducer+power wire. I could have wired it along the cockpit using existing holes for FF mounting, but I decided against it because I didn't want 2' of wire in the way.

I'm still waiting on one more part (the FF holder + mount) so I can finish the FF install. I'll take some pics of what I did later.

Also, reaching the transducer thru-hull fitting was a bitch and a half I could get my hand in just enough that my nails could touch it. It took me 30 minutes to get the nut off and back on. Yeesh.

Don't know if it's relevant to this thread, but just wondering if you decided how you're going to transport that beast. Car top? Trailer?

Don't know if it's relevant to this thread, but just wondering if you decided how you're going to transport that beast. Car top? Trailer?

I actually made another post about it here: http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=73139.0

But the tl;dr version is I'm looking into getting a trailer that I can keep it loaded on and take it out with me anytime I go out to local lakes and places with room for a trailer. And if I can't do that I'll car top the hull and put the ama's in my truck.

I'm strong enough to load it car top on my massive Tahoe, but it gets old fast. I'm thinking about heading over to REI to buy their Hullavator, it has a 1 year no questions asked return policy. So I'll try it with the AI and if it doesn't work out I'll return it.

So in short I don't really have a method I'm happy with but it's a work in process.

FF install done! I felt like I should have put the thru hull plug in a slightly different place but I think it'll be okay there since the AI rides rather high and it's well sealed.



Above these stickers is where I should've put the thru-hull, I think but I didn't look close enough to see that it was also a flat surface. Added a compass.



Rod holders using Pat's mounts. Worked pretty well, gonna try it out tomorrow.



I like this battery holder, it's nice and out of the way.

Looks great---can't wait to see what kinds of sharks you can land from that...