I'd been kicking tires at Binks every now and again, mainly checking out the Outback, seeing as it was a good looking fishing platform and fit neatly in the weird place I have to keep my kayak. And then Hobie come along with another few models in the 11-12 foot range with the PA 12 and the Revo 11. As the thing that I missed most with my existing kayak was speed and range, my heart was set on the zippy looking Revo 11. Further to the cause of extending my range and upping the speed, I went with the sail kit, plus sidekicks for when I'm too tied up with fishing gear to let out the sail in a timely fashion.
Here it is about to be chewed in the shore break. More on that later
So what've you got did
The cockpit with Everything, on a later test trip (test trips are where I don't catch much). Look how lovely and pointy that bow is.
Binks kindly installed a number of little things to get the boat the way I wanted it. Taking notes from Mingle, I got a pair of Scotty flush mounts installed near the rudder up/down controls, and with the articulated extender arms I'd already acquired, I can get a pair of rods into a nice trolling position clear of my knees, clear of my sail, and close enough to hand.
The rope and pulley you can see bungeed over the central hatch is part of the sail furler system that Binks introduced me to when I asked them about sail-rotating furlers (here it is being used: ). I liked the look of theirs as the rope that rotates the mast is an endless loop, rather than a second sheet to dangle and tangle. Initially the rope was a bit slippery on the mast pulley and didn't work too well, but the rope is beginning to roughen and bite more and in my last test I could furl the main in a couple of seconds. At this stage, the PVC pipe sleeve and second sheet furlers seem a bit quicker (here's Mingle using his: ). As the intent is to stop the boat and control the sail when I hook a fish, speed is important! I'll have to see if I can shave a few seconds off as it is now. One other niggle is the circular cover around the pulley is wide enough that to access the front hatch, I need to lift the mast a few inches, but that might be a problem I'd face with other furling systems.
Binks fixed the sidekick crossbar just behind the seat, so as not to interfere with the wheels should I ever take them with me. This makes the outriggers pretty easy to access on the water, making offshore setup and packdown convenient, but it has made access to the lowest outrigger position a problem as I can't get my finger underneath to click the sidekick back out again. I'm more into going into the gulf with the sail up rather than standing up in an estuary and sight casting (and if I was into that I'd have got an Outback or a PA12) so the setting with the floats raised for low drag is all I really want out of them, but if you want low floats to make a nice raft for standing on, take care that there's some finger-space underneath the crossbar where the hole is.
I have my FF head unit sitting on a RAM mount on a small ball diamond base fixed to the bottom of the right mesh pocket. A small bung hole was big enough to pass the plug through, and with some carved up kickboard foam stuffed in there, I can't see any gaps for much water to sneak in that way. I was worried the head unit would crowd my leg too much, but it's just out of the way enough that I can pedal as normal. I suppose if I had a larger head unit I could get a scotty/ram ball adapter and sacrifice a rod holder.
Between the central hatch gear bucket, the mirage drive slot and the blocks of foam I've glued in there, I'm happy that the battery's not gonna move around too much. One day I'll get around to sealing it in a lunchbox so I don't run the risk of seawater closing a circuit over unfused terminals. Speaking of the gear bucket, wow, a central hatch is something I really missed not having in my other yak. Plenty of space in the bucket for all the tackle I'd ever take on a single trip, one less thing to reach into the rear well for! Also shown; a clam cleat for the main to keep me moving while my hands are busy managing lines.
A wet mount just behind the mast step, so I can move the transducer to my old boat if I want.
So how does it go?
I foolishly took this new and unfamiliar boat fully rigged into a nasty little dumpy shore break and found out the hard way a few important things:
With the outriggers unusable for now and stashed in my car, I persevered and attempted a second launch, this time with the paddle. This boat really wriggles along side to side with the rudder up but I got past the break fine this time around. It was a lumpy, breezy day, southerly felt like 12 knots and enough to blow up some whitecaps. I noticed straight away this boat was a little tippier than my Emotion Stealth Angler, but I relaxed quickly when I found it only went a few degrees either way before slowing right down. Although I left the outriggers behind, the sail was still on and I was happy to find using it was not as precarious as I anticipated. I had to loose the mainsheet a few times but I never came close to tipping over. My return journey was against the wind and racing sundown, but progress upwind didn't seem frustrating at the time, I think I even got through a few tacks without pedaling. I felt like the lovely pointy bow was doing its job cutting through chop, my Emotion yak has a broader nose that likes to go up and over rather than through and progress would be slow.
On returning to shore, I pulled the paddle out and clipped the rudder and drive up for a conservative and hopefully familiar landing. It really doesn't track as well like this as my last boat did, but although I ended up side on to a broken wave and felt a bit tippier than I'm used to, I succesfully braced and stayed upright. Perhaps I'm meant to leave the rudder down but uncleated so I come in straighter? Speaking of the rudder; very responsive. I suspect the reason the boat tracks so bad without it is so it responds straight away when it's down. Had to give it a lot of nudges to maintain a heading while sailing but I'll have to see if this is a fact of life, or something I can improve with technique.
My next trips were less hazardous, and I got to use the sidekicks along with the sail. Although sailing without them was feasible, they made it possible to ignore the mainsheet for a sec while I attended to the fishing. I'm going to put some kind of fairing in to guide the mainsheet around the rear well as I've had a few annoying snags where the sail stayed on longer than I'd like. Also, tying the end of the mainsheet to an outrigger, rather than leaving all the mainsheet trailing in the water while sailing close is something I'll try next; I had the end of the sheet snagged in the rudder momentarily at one point. Could've been quite a hassle!
I had my eye on the gps more on the the later trip, and I found that I was tacking through 140 degrees, taking into account the direction I was actually travelling (at about 3kph), not the way I was faced. I'm using standard fins at the moment (and a sailing rudder) but it seems to me I might really benefit from the turbos; presumably being larger and deeper they'll help reduce side-slip. It'll be interesting to measure the difference it makes, and see what else I can do to get a bit closer to the breeze.
Man oh man I can't wait to take this thing to KI in November
(via the ferry of course )
Here it is about to be chewed in the shore break. More on that later
So what've you got did
The cockpit with Everything, on a later test trip (test trips are where I don't catch much). Look how lovely and pointy that bow is.
Binks kindly installed a number of little things to get the boat the way I wanted it. Taking notes from Mingle, I got a pair of Scotty flush mounts installed near the rudder up/down controls, and with the articulated extender arms I'd already acquired, I can get a pair of rods into a nice trolling position clear of my knees, clear of my sail, and close enough to hand.
The rope and pulley you can see bungeed over the central hatch is part of the sail furler system that Binks introduced me to when I asked them about sail-rotating furlers (here it is being used: ). I liked the look of theirs as the rope that rotates the mast is an endless loop, rather than a second sheet to dangle and tangle. Initially the rope was a bit slippery on the mast pulley and didn't work too well, but the rope is beginning to roughen and bite more and in my last test I could furl the main in a couple of seconds. At this stage, the PVC pipe sleeve and second sheet furlers seem a bit quicker (here's Mingle using his: ). As the intent is to stop the boat and control the sail when I hook a fish, speed is important! I'll have to see if I can shave a few seconds off as it is now. One other niggle is the circular cover around the pulley is wide enough that to access the front hatch, I need to lift the mast a few inches, but that might be a problem I'd face with other furling systems.
Binks fixed the sidekick crossbar just behind the seat, so as not to interfere with the wheels should I ever take them with me. This makes the outriggers pretty easy to access on the water, making offshore setup and packdown convenient, but it has made access to the lowest outrigger position a problem as I can't get my finger underneath to click the sidekick back out again. I'm more into going into the gulf with the sail up rather than standing up in an estuary and sight casting (and if I was into that I'd have got an Outback or a PA12) so the setting with the floats raised for low drag is all I really want out of them, but if you want low floats to make a nice raft for standing on, take care that there's some finger-space underneath the crossbar where the hole is.
I have my FF head unit sitting on a RAM mount on a small ball diamond base fixed to the bottom of the right mesh pocket. A small bung hole was big enough to pass the plug through, and with some carved up kickboard foam stuffed in there, I can't see any gaps for much water to sneak in that way. I was worried the head unit would crowd my leg too much, but it's just out of the way enough that I can pedal as normal. I suppose if I had a larger head unit I could get a scotty/ram ball adapter and sacrifice a rod holder.
Between the central hatch gear bucket, the mirage drive slot and the blocks of foam I've glued in there, I'm happy that the battery's not gonna move around too much. One day I'll get around to sealing it in a lunchbox so I don't run the risk of seawater closing a circuit over unfused terminals. Speaking of the gear bucket, wow, a central hatch is something I really missed not having in my other yak. Plenty of space in the bucket for all the tackle I'd ever take on a single trip, one less thing to reach into the rear well for! Also shown; a clam cleat for the main to keep me moving while my hands are busy managing lines.
A wet mount just behind the mast step, so I can move the transducer to my old boat if I want.
So how does it go?
I foolishly took this new and unfamiliar boat fully rigged into a nasty little dumpy shore break and found out the hard way a few important things:
- The Revo 11 turns as easily as a lazy susan without its rudder down, not that it should be down in a shore break because:[/*]
- The salesman's gonna talk up the mirage drive and talk down the paddle but please use it to get past a shore break[/*]
- Stash the outriggers in the rear well and blow them up and click them on once you're past the surf[/*]
- If you do have them on prior and end up rolling on them, the "good" news is the (inexpensive) central crossbar will probably be the thing to break and not the hull or the outriggers themselves[/*]
With the outriggers unusable for now and stashed in my car, I persevered and attempted a second launch, this time with the paddle. This boat really wriggles along side to side with the rudder up but I got past the break fine this time around. It was a lumpy, breezy day, southerly felt like 12 knots and enough to blow up some whitecaps. I noticed straight away this boat was a little tippier than my Emotion Stealth Angler, but I relaxed quickly when I found it only went a few degrees either way before slowing right down. Although I left the outriggers behind, the sail was still on and I was happy to find using it was not as precarious as I anticipated. I had to loose the mainsheet a few times but I never came close to tipping over. My return journey was against the wind and racing sundown, but progress upwind didn't seem frustrating at the time, I think I even got through a few tacks without pedaling. I felt like the lovely pointy bow was doing its job cutting through chop, my Emotion yak has a broader nose that likes to go up and over rather than through and progress would be slow.
On returning to shore, I pulled the paddle out and clipped the rudder and drive up for a conservative and hopefully familiar landing. It really doesn't track as well like this as my last boat did, but although I ended up side on to a broken wave and felt a bit tippier than I'm used to, I succesfully braced and stayed upright. Perhaps I'm meant to leave the rudder down but uncleated so I come in straighter? Speaking of the rudder; very responsive. I suspect the reason the boat tracks so bad without it is so it responds straight away when it's down. Had to give it a lot of nudges to maintain a heading while sailing but I'll have to see if this is a fact of life, or something I can improve with technique.
My next trips were less hazardous, and I got to use the sidekicks along with the sail. Although sailing without them was feasible, they made it possible to ignore the mainsheet for a sec while I attended to the fishing. I'm going to put some kind of fairing in to guide the mainsheet around the rear well as I've had a few annoying snags where the sail stayed on longer than I'd like. Also, tying the end of the mainsheet to an outrigger, rather than leaving all the mainsheet trailing in the water while sailing close is something I'll try next; I had the end of the sheet snagged in the rudder momentarily at one point. Could've been quite a hassle!
I had my eye on the gps more on the the later trip, and I found that I was tacking through 140 degrees, taking into account the direction I was actually travelling (at about 3kph), not the way I was faced. I'm using standard fins at the moment (and a sailing rudder) but it seems to me I might really benefit from the turbos; presumably being larger and deeper they'll help reduce side-slip. It'll be interesting to measure the difference it makes, and see what else I can do to get a bit closer to the breeze.
Man oh man I can't wait to take this thing to KI in November
(via the ferry of course )