[alfie]

Hi folks

Been a couple of years without a kayak. The last one went as part of rationalising to afford to upgrade to a new prawning / fishing tinnie.

I couldn't get home after a 12 hour nightshift yesterday cause the cops had Drewvale in lockdown after some numptys supposedly let off a couple of shots and then crashed a car near my house. What do while waiting ? Off to the three lettered boating / fishing shop.

I only meant to buy a couple of lures but a cheap sounding Yak caught my eye. it was marked down because one scupper bung was missing and the rudder had a couple of bits missing.

I walked out with a Glide 12 foot fishing kayak for $ 300. I figured I couldn't go wrong. The missing bung was a no brainer, I don't use them anyway. The rudder cost me 70 cents for a couple of washers, as I had assorted do dads in my shelves to rig it up.

Bought a seat and trolley from another store and I'm back on the water for $ 400 all up.

Now to get it wet

cheers

 

[alfie]

Sea trials completed. I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised by my purchase.

I went to Vicci Pt and had to walk the yak from 1/2 way down the car park and then down the rough side track to the sand. The glide trolley didn't falter and broke down easily and fit in the front hatch. (Something I hadn't thought to try beforehand.)

It was very stable and tracked well, with or without the rudder. I did find the rudder helped on the final run home with a 15 kn. cross wind, white caps and against the tide ( I tried with and without. It seemed to allow full power strokes both sides without going off track. ) my last ride was a 16 foot Viking predator which had a much higher profile and was more affected by a cross wind. I stayed dry until the last 200m as well.

I was out for 4 hours, tried fishing the red buoy for an hour or so. No one seemed to be landing anything. I did have one solid hit on a soft plastic. I don't know what it was but it pulled line and then straightened the hook out. I was drifting at the time and it was definitely a fish, not a snag.

I was a bit worried about parking there. I carried the yak on the new 7 x 4 box trailer I recently built. I wasn't sure if the Council would say it was allowed. Turns out the sign only said cars with trailers. ( not specifically BOAT trailers ) on return there were probably 20 cars with infringement notices on them - mine wasn't one of them, so all good. I have ladder bars on the trailer, but I found I don't need to strain to put the yak up there. It rests nicely on the trailer itself down the centreline and doesn't overhang more than a metre. Happy days, easy as!

Now to start tricking it out.

Cheers.