My shiny new red hot rod!

Ain't she hot!!




Here is a potential layout for the beginnings of the cockpit...




This seat is comfy!  (see the classified for the stock seat if you want it).





I am currently stressing over my wife's overheating car as she struggles back from Eureka, but hopefully tomorrow I will feel secure enough to get to mounting the fishfinder etc....

MolBasser

Nice yak!

What happened to the tye-dye?     Thought you were getting the sunrise one?

I had a choice of another month wait or a red one.

Red was my second choice color, and it is actually growing on me more and more.

I'm plenty happy for the price I paid....

MolBasser

WOOOOT! 

Is that a 13 or a 15? Doesn't look like my 15 in the tank well or foredeck behind the hatch.

Is that a 13 or a 15? Doesn't look like my 15 in the tank well or foredeck behind the hatch.

13

Yeah, what Mooch said.  It is a thirteen.

Word is that the tankwell is the exact same size though.

edit:  The black disc in the back is a cover they installed because they had to cut a hole there to install the rudder.



MolBasser

I was wondering about that balck disk. I have a rudder on my 15 and no disk.

Its an accessability thing, is the word I get....

MolBasser

All,

So I have begun the pimping in earnest.  The first thing to do is to see how she rides on the ride...




Looks good, but the real reason that I put it up on the rack is to test whether or not I can use a scotty rod

holder mount up front without any issues on the rack.....dagnabit!




I'll get to that later, now is the time to see if that box that everyone likes so much fits in my tank well. 

Not great, but in retrospect it fits fairly well.  It rides high and is easy to access and is quite crammed

into the spot and barring a surf roll, isn't going anywhere.  I do need to tie it down, but it looks like it

will be fine.




Now, lets get to the real meat of the work today.  First order of business is to install the flushmounts.  I

made a template and here you can see me arranging it on the hull.




That side whent well, but on the second side I proved the old carpenters addage.  Measure twice, cut once.




I had mistakenly rotated the template facing forward, thanks to measuring twice I caught the error before the

dremel tool hit the plastic.  Here is the cut hole.




The first mount I cut and put the holder in and it didn't fit.  I completely panicked that I had just cut

this huge hole in my hull and the tankwell was in the way.  After a few sips of beer and some beard stroking

I realized that I just needed to sand the hole properly and everthing was fine.  I did almost all of my work

today with a dremel tool.  Here is the installed flushmount.




After the flushmounts I installed the flushmount fishfinder bracket, and decided that I was not going to let

my roof rack dictate how I wanted my kayak and installed the forward rod holder.  I have a ton of ideas on

how to mitigate the issue, so it is no big deal.  Here is a view of the side of the cockpit.




And the front.




And from the back.




A back view forward to the cockpit.




And a full side view.





I still need to wire the fishfinder and mount the transducer.  I also need to make the box functional with

rod holders and make the bait tank/live well, but all said I think I did a decent job today.

MolBasser

All,

After much searching high and low for a pool noodle in Santa Cruz, I came up with one but it was fairly narrow.  So narrow in fact, that I could not use a cross section for the transducer mount that I wanted to.

This was a problem.  I searched the town high and low for closed cell foam to no effect.

Finally I resolved to figure out the problem.  I found that if I sliced the noodle down the middle I got enough foam to make a mount, and thus this is what I did.  It took me about 6 trys to get the angles of the cuts and other things just right, but I was able to goop it into the hull.  Score.  (pictures later.)

So, now I have the transducer mount, but I need to wire the rig.  I spent a bit of time finding a rubber stopper that I could use as a gasket and spent FREEKING 2 hours searching the house for the 3/4" drill bit that I set somewhere...

Finally I found the bit and drilled the hole and took the plug and drilled two holes in it and split the sides to the holes.  It is not a prefect solution but it will work perfectly for freshwater.  I would not be happy with constant saltwater waves going over it, but then again, I never go into water where salt water is constantly washing over my hull....

I was fairly unhappy with 20' of transducer cable when I only need like 8"...so I split the casing to see if I could splice it down.  I was faced with some wierd stuff and a bare wire.  I got freaked an taped it up.  I need to find my old transducer and disect it.  There is no way I need to store 20' of cable when I only need 8".......

I built up a AA battery pack, but haven't finished it yet.  I have a Gel Cell battery so that is not a big pressure.

The final thing to do (before this weekend, we all know it is never over....) is to mount the rod holders on the box tomorrow.  I know that three is the right number, but I am facinated with putting 4 on.  We shall see.

More pics tomorrow.

MolBasser

Don't cut your transducer cable, it will ruin it.  At least that is watch it states somewhere in the Humminbird manual.

Interesting.

I should have an old transducer for my FF when the rat bastard stole the unit out of my car without the tranducer.

I think I might have tossed it though.  Dammit.

There is no electronic reason that the tranducer cord cannot be spliced in my mind...

Anyone out there with more knowledge?

MolBasser

Looks like a bass kickin ride man! 

On the box I think 4 holder might be too many. Make sure you leave space for the reels to have a little room so they are easy to remove.

Yeah.  I know.

3 is the right number, but 4......

As a bass fisherman, you CANNOT have enough rods on your boat with you.

However, I am attempting to take a Mooch point of view and get more minimalist.

I have 2 flushmounts and 3 rod holders gives me room for 5, but......

I make the box tomorrow, and I am going to mock up the 4 mount (I already mocked the 3 and it looked good).

Should be fine.

I will post more pix tomorrow.

MolBasser