WayneD's Espri

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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I remembered that I had a buggered portable jumpstarter (faulty charging mechanism) and the battery shop guy told me they use a small sealed 12v battery so I pulled it apart hoping for a spare 7 AH but instead found a 12 AH, even better! Although a bit on the big side will be good for any longer trips I will do, maybe camping overnight somewhere.

Then I charged up the battery to test it and it charged up OK so then I tested the emergency light they have in them, yep that still works. Hmmm..... I wonder if I can hook that up to work in my kayak.

So I started with a small klip it container. These things claim to be airtight, so they should be watertight also, in theory. I pulled the light and the switch from the jumpstarter. Tried to silicone light housing to container, didn't work. Tried to supaglue light housing to container, didn't work. So then double sided taped it to it. For the switch I just drilled a hole slightly smaller than the switch itself and then just screwed it in.

Still have to finish off the wiring as I don't have enough of the small wire to run to the battery but have tested it and it works just fine. It is at the perfect height for shining a light in your lap when fishing at night time in the yak. Plus I still have access to the front hatch if needed.

I just added another piece of aluminium to the fish finder rack to attach it to. The whole thing is still portable to hange to another kayak if needed.

Here's me and my yak all loaded up for a trip to Peel for the weekend. On top I have my tent, my sounder and battery, two rods and all my tackle in the pockets on the back of the seat, esky with 30 cans of beer and ice, tarp, camp pantry, and anchor. Below deck I have a 10ft telescopic fishing rod, 20, 10, & 5ltr dry sacks, 6 bottles of 1.5ltr water, brag mat and any other small items that the other guys couldn't fit in their yak.

After the weekend I have only two complaints about the design of the Espri. The first is that there is no scupper holes in the footwells so they fill up with water and then the bottom half of the front hatch goes under water before the scupper holes above the footrest start letting water out, possible leakage point. The second is that the back hatch needs to be bigger like on the Calypso's. This way it would be easier to store things under the deck. To get my dry sacks underneath I had to put them inside the hatches empty and then fill them up, a bit painfull when you have to do it often.