Thinking about rigging my new 2017 Outback.... what's actually needed?

Well the 'old' 2015 loan Hobie Outback is due to depart to a new owner on Saturday with my new replacement 2017 model due to arrive at the Hobie UK dealer the same day. However, I probably won't be able to collect it until later next week so that's provided me with time to consider how I'm going to rig it and what exactly I'm going to have to order. Hopefully it'll look just like this one below when I collect it.

This Outback will have to last many years, I'm not going to be in any rush to upgrade to the latest model, etc. Rigging is expensive and time consuming, plus every time I move onto a new kayak I end up losing quite a lot of money on items that can't be removed, items such as track systems, fixed mounts, anchor trolley, hatches, electrical looms, etc. It's also the time required to actually rig the kayak, giving it plenty of thought, as well a taking the time to produce a top notch final product,.. this all takes time. A considerable amount of time!

I considered fitting Hobie H-Rails plus the associated accessories, though it just starts to get more complex and more expensive. Plus I was concerned about re-entering the kayak after a capsize, etc. I justed to keep it clean and relatively simple.

I've rigged two Outbacks since 2012, some things have worked well, other modifications perhaps haven't been quite so successful. There are certain things that are 'must have' modifications, these will include:

1. An anchor trolley. I've previously made my own anchor trolleys on two of my previous kayaks. It's straight forward and not particularly expensive. However, this time I'm planning on fitting a YakAttack LeverLoc system, probably one on either side. It looks to be a well thought out, innovative, yet simplistic system, made from quality components, Time will tell, my YakAttack order is due to arrive shortly.

2. Rod holders (I'll stick with my trusted RAM tube setup for bait fishing). I've been using RAM RAP-119 rod holders for some time now. I've modified mine specifically for the Outback and they work well for most applications.

3. Rectangular hatch. Storage space is everything on the kayak for me and the standard round hatch just doesn't cut it. I'll also add the tackle insert as well as an integrated dry bag within the hull to provide a large amount of enclosed dry storage. I've done this previously and it works very well.

4. Combination fish finder/GPS. I've watched this technology improve exponentially since I started kayak fishing in 2007, starting out with a Humminbird 565 to my Prowler Big Game. I'm fortunate to be an Ambassador for Lowrance and my most recent setup is an HDS 9 Carbon with TotalScan, This should be a straightforward installation as Hobie kayaks are 'Lowrance ready'.

5. Accessory Mounts. Whether it be rod holders, fish finders, navigation lights, cameras, etc, they all need a way of being mounted to the kayak. I prefer a universal type of system and for this I've been using YakAttack's GearTrac from the beginning. These can accept a variety of fittings and are ideal for mounting a multitude of accessories. The latest 2nd Generation GearTrac is somewhat lighter and will be a new fit for myself.

6. An electrical system. To me this is vitally important, not just because it's require to power up the FF/GPS and navigation light, etc, but it also has be be extremely durable to survive many years in a saltwater environment without failing. This requires quality components as well as a methodical approach to ensure watertight integrity is maximised. For this I use Bulgin Standard marine connectors. They are very well sealed and feature stainless steel pins and sockets. Looms are covered with heat shrink tubing for durability and ssuitably sealed. This is not a cheap setup, however it's tremendously reliable.

7. Power supply. Over the years I've used SLA batteries to power up my electrics. In the early days I could get a couple of sessions out on a 7ah battery if needed. Though with today's large screen combination fish finder/GPS units the power requirements are far higher. With my latest Lowrance HDS 9 Carbon I was really struggling to get a decent fishing session out of a 12ah battery. Lead acid batteries are bulky and heavy so after much research I've recently moved away from SLA batteries and purchased an LiFePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery. Despite being 22ah in capacity, its lighter than a 12ah SLA battery and comparable in size. It's charge from flat to full capacity in 4 hours, that's seriously fast compared to a lead acid battery. This is stored in its own dry bag with a fully waterproof connector within the kayak.

That's the 'must have' items for the Outback, though there are other considerations as well.

As much as I never got to sail the 2015 Outback, I did sail my first Outback model on quite a few occasions and enjoyed it immensely. To that end I'll rig this new model for sailing from the outset. That'll require the crossbar for the Hobie Sidekicks to be fitted as well as some minor items of hardware towards the front hatch.

The tankwell area will be used for my drybox/ Hobie H-Crate or Hobie Livewell as required, nothing new there whatsover, it works, no need to re-invent the well.

Visually this new 2017 Outback will look very similar to my current setup, though it'll be mine and that just feels better for a variety of reasons.

I think that should do it. It'll take me a good couple of days to get it rigged just how I want it. Time to order up some items so I can crack on with the rigging in a week or so, hopefully the YakAttack items will arrive in good time. I want it to be fishing ready within a fortnight, bring on the fishing!

2015 Hobie Outback – Rectangular hatch upgrade with hatch liner & modified tackle insert

The Hobie fishing kayaks (bar the Pro Angler) come fitted with round hatches. I’ve never been a huge fan of these, if for no other reason that I much preferred the practicality of the rectangular hatch that I’d fitted to my Big Game. From about 2014, Hobie had flattened the area on the Outback around the centre hatch to permit fitment of the rectangular hatch from the Pro Angler as an optional upgrade. This obviously didn’t help me on my older 2011 model Outback so I’d been stuck with the round hatch. I did greatly improve it’s effectiveness by fitting a large hatch liner, something I’d copy during this upgrade.

Below is a photo of the finished product… followed by an explanation of how I achieved it.

The hatch kit was ordered from my local Hobie dealer, this consisted of the hatch itself, an internal securing bracket and a foam seal. The screws had to be ordered separately. The hatch is a very study affair. It can be seen below next to the round hatch for comparison.

Fitment is actually really straightforward, though it’s really is a case of measure and check 2-3 times before making a cut, this is not something that you get a second chance at!.

The round hatch is held in with 8 screws. Remove these and the round hatch lifts straight out, remove the foam seal and recover the securing bracket from within the kayak. Keep them as spares as they’re identical to the rear hatch.

The hatch can be mounted in two positions as shown below. I chose the standard ‘across’ fitting. It’s a personal thing, sit in the kayak and try both, see what works best for you.

 

Once that decision had been made I marked out the cutting area using the back plate as a template. It’s always best to remove too little and take more away as required. Again… CHECK several times before you begin to cut. I drilled a couple of access holes in the corners to permit me to use a jigsaw.

That’s the hard part done!.You might find that the hatch doesn’t drop in at this point. Fear not, look to see how much it’s out and remove additional hull material as required. I’ve found rotary sanding wheels mounted into an electric drill ideal for this. Finally, clean up any rough edges using some sandpaper.

With the hatch placed into position mark up and drill out the screw holes. It’s simply just a case then of sliding the rear bracket into the hull, offering it up into position and screwing down through the hatch hole into the back plate (don’t forget the hatch seal!). A third hand may prove useful at this point, though once the first couple of screws are in, it’s plain sailing. Just nip them up, don’t over tighten them as it’ll potentially result in stripping the threads in the back plate. If that was to happen, I’d drill the back plate holes out slightly and fit nuts and bolts.

So here it is, the rectangular hatch upgrade, perhaps an hours work.

You can order the hatch with a tackle box cantilever system that’ll permit the fitment of two Plano tackle boxes. This wasn’t something for me, I really wanted as much useable room within the hatch as possible. As I mentioned earlier, I had decided to incorporate a hatch liner as per my earlier model Outback. For this I sourced a large size heavy duty rubberised dry bag designed for military backpacks, etc. It’s about 120 litres in size.

Here it is, shown against the Outback to give an idea of its size.

The plan was to position the dry bag as far forward as it’d reasonably go (up against the Mirage drive well), make a cut out for the hatch and to glue the hatch backing plate into the hatch bag on the inner side of the cut out. With the hatch positioned internally I’d roll up the open end of the dry bag and tie it off around the transducer scupper before lifting the backing plate into position and screwing down the hatch…. straight forward?

Using the backing plate as a template I made a cut out in the bag. Once that was done I used Marine Goop to glue the backing plate into position. This was really easy to do. Once dry the backing plate holes can be felt through the rubber material of the dry bag, I punctured these with a spike to make fitment that little bit easier.

 

I ‘pre-measured’ the bag by lying it is position on top of the hull. This permitted me to gauge how much I needed to roll up prior to securing it around the transducer scupper. With the bag inserted into the hull it’s quite an easy job to get your hands back and clip the rolled up bag around the scupper tube. With that done, drop the hatch into position on top of the seal, lift the mounting bracket up against the hull and screw it all up.

It created a really large useable storage space, far better than the hatch opening up directly into the hull. The picture doesn’t do it justice. This space extends from the rear of the Mirage drive well back to the transducer scupper, as well as several inches either side of the hatch opening.

Was it straightforward?, yup!. Below is the finished hatch bag installation. You can also see that I’ve upgraded all the mesh tackle pockets with the rubberised versions from the Pro Angler. It’s well worth doing, no more tangled hooks!

Well that’s not quite the end of the story. I also purchased the tackle insert for the rectangular hatch, a while plastic affair. I believe that is came with a removable fabric strap, though I lost before I got around to using it!.

With the hatch all fitted I dropped the tackle insert into the hatch… it didn’t fit!!!. The insert appeared to be too high. I got straight onto the internet and it quickly became apparent that it’ll fit some new Outbacks, and not others?!. The tolerance for fit is quite tight and when a kayak hull is removed from the mould it can move by up to 5% as it cools. This apparently accounts for the inconsistency of fit. Not ideal, but as mentioned this insert is meant for the Pro Angler.

I’m not one to be beaten easily so I set about modifying the new tackle insert. The corners were removed, inverted and glued inside of the tackle insert. It was the corners that had been fouling the hull so this modification overcame that.

I then made a centre divider which was secured into place using stainless screws and Marine Goop. All joins were then fully seal to create two watertight compartments. The result?, a removable tackle/bait tray.

As all seams are fully sealed I can use wet baits without the juices leaking into the hull or cross contaminating the adjacent compartment. Adding the centre divider really stiffened the whole tackle insert up and made it far more effective. A finger hole was drilled into the top centre of the divider to enable it to be easily removed.

Even with the modified tackle insert fitted into the rectangular hatch, there’s plenty of room to fit small tackle boxes around it. Definitely one of the best modifications I’ve done on my new Outback.

Rigging the Hobie Outback for fishing (Part1)

I’ve had the Hobie Outback for a few months now, rigging has been steady, perhaps a little pedestrian. A times parts have been slow to arrive, a lot of time has been spent planning and there’s been fishing, Christmas, Easter and other holidays and weekends away in between.

I’ve rigged several kayaks before, mostly for other people. The Outback had to be capable of being fished in various guises, anchoring, fishing with live or deadbait, trolling, lure fishing and sailing. Obviously not all at once!, however, It needed to be rigged in such a way that would permit the role of the kayak to be changed quickly and with minimal fuss. Consideration was also given to safety and I decided early on that I’d be fitting a bilge pump. It’s something I’d always wanted to fit to my Big Game, though I never got around to doing it. With the Outback I had a plain canvas, and with several years of experience behind me, I wanted to get it right from day one.

The rigging is now effectively completed, sure, there’s a couple of minor changes that I’ll embody in time, though for all intents and purposes it’s finished and ready to tackle anything that I choose to throw at it.

Below are two photos, the first one shows the Outback as it was supplied, the one below that shows the rigging complete, but with the kayak fully stripped for storage/transport.

Hobie Outback (as supplied)

Hobie Outback (Fully rigged and stripped)

At a glance there’s not a lot of difference to be honest, though that kayak can now be rigged to sail and/or fish in a matter of minutes, day or night. Look closely and you’ll see various pieces of GearTrac, a couple of cleats and two rod holders (removable if required). Look a  little closer and you’ll notice electrical cables, the kayak is fully wired to permit the connection of a battery to power up a fish finder, GPS, a bilge pump plus a navigation light.

There’s a crossbar fixed behind the seat, this permits the fitment of Hobie Sidekicks (click the link for the full article) which are ideally suited to sailing or perhaps fishing in rough seas. There’s also an anchor trolley system fitted, a must for anchoring in tidal waters and anchoring duties in general. Also visible on the other side of the kayak, close to the nose is another trolley system. This is actually a half-trolley and was fitted to permit the use of a drogue whilst anchored.

With a few pointers you may notice that the rudder is larger than the standard item, having being upgraded to a ‘sailing rudder’. At the rear left of the kayak (behind a section of GearTrac) is a flush outlet for the bilge pump. So at a glance there’s not much change, however, there’s actually many hours of planning and rigging taken place to reach that point.

Rigging for ‘basic fishing duties’

Below there’s a few photos showing the rigging that I’d consider ideal for standard fishing duties, whether it be anchored up or drifting. This would perhaps permit some lure fishing, fishing with dead baits, perhaps a livebait if caught and used immediately.

                

The only additions have been my trusty dry box, a GoPro Hero 2 camera mounted up front on a PanFish Portrait. The PanFish is mounted to a piece of YakAttack’s GT90 GearTrac, another piece is mounted on the rear upper side of the dry box, the latter allowing the fitment of a VisiCarbon Pro flag/light and my camera monopod. The GoPro is remote controlled so it’s position up front is not a concern.

The GearTrac is strong and versatile, permitting the quick and easy fitment and removal of suitably equipped accessories as required. I also have four piece of GearTrac GT175 positioned around the kayak, more on that later.

There’s a anchor reel and anchor situated in the front hatch (in the Hobie hatch liner – not shown), though the dry box also features two anchor stowages, so there are various options for storing the anchor & reel. The kayak trolley is fitted upside down, located in the tank well scupper holes and secured using the forward straps on the dry box.

 

I fitted additional stainless steel pad eyes either side of the seat to permit the front securing straps of the dry box to be attached kayak. There are Hobie mounting points either side of the dry box though their positioning was unsuitable, however, they are perfect for securing the Hobie Livewell. As can be seen in the photos above, I’ve run two continuous lengths of bungee cord around the dry box to permit items to be easily stored, yet remaining readily available. I keep by  removable cutting board and paddle float secured in these positions.

The cutting board is a must for bait fishing and was simple enough to manufacture. I utilised a MightyMount from YakAttack and associated T-bolt, thus allowing it be fitted and removed from the front right GearTrac in seconds.

Ok, I’ll take a closer look at the permanent fit as well as the electrical items.

The rod holders are modified composite RAM tubes. I’ve fitted them on either side of the seat in the recesses that permits the storage of pliers, etc, whilst fishing. They weren't a straight forward fit and required spacers and a longer bolt for the handle to permit them to be correctly fitted. They’re ideally placed and provide an ‘armchair’ fishing position. Rod leashes are also attached in this location, keeping those expensive rods and reels leashed to the kayak at all times.

I found the centre 8” ‘Twist & Lock’ hatch not that user friendly to begin with. Like most hatches it opens up directly to the hull and does not permit the easy storage of tackle and other items. Hobie don’t produce a ‘hatch bag’ for the 8” hatch so after a some thought I produced my own hatch liner (click the link for the full article) for little money. The end result was a cavernous compartment that allows many items of tackle, a flask, food, etc, to be stored as required.

There was of course the requirement (luxury) of having an electronics fit. I did consider a fish finder/GPS combo unit, though once you combine the initial purchase price with a mapping card they suddenly become very expensive. I already owned a Garmin 60Csx GPS with Bluecharts, so I decided to stick with that and to add a new fish finder. After an awful lot of deliberation I settled on a Lowrance Elite 4x DSI. This is a small down imaging unit and from the various reviews that I’d read, it’s performance (and price) were quite impressive.

The GPS was already mounted to a RAM cradle and could be fitted to the GearTrac in seconds. The Lowrance is supplied with a rather bulky mount, though for some additional expenditure a dedicated RAM mount can be purchased (part No.RAM-B-101-LO11). This negates the requirement for the supplied Lowrance mount and permits the unit to be mounted directly to the GearTrac using a ScrewBall from YakAttack. Both the fish finder and the GPS are easily removed and stored for surf landings if required.

  

The transducer for the DSI units should ideally be placed outside the hull, as opposed to a ‘shoot through hull’ configuration and generally used with traditional sonars. This did prove somewhat difficult on the Outback as the only suitable mounting points were the rear scupper holes. I didn’t want to lose the facility of using the Hobie kayak trolley so an alternative mounting point was required. I’m not a fan of mounting a transducer on an ‘arm’, hanging it over the side of the kayak, though after quite some though I worked out that by removing the thread from a seat scupper that the transducer would pass through. The transducer mount needed quite some modification, though the end result was neat, tidy and very functional.

 

I’ll cover the fish finder installation in a little more detail at a later date. I also took the opportunity to fit a an electric bilge pump (click the link for the full article) to enable water to be quickly removed from the hull should I ever experience a leak whilst I’m afloat. Sure, it’s unlikely, but if it does happen I’ll certainly be happy that I took the time to fit the system.

  

The last electrical item that I fitted was a homemade navigation light. It’s nothing special, an off the shelf light unit, aluminium pole, foam grip and a waterproof plug. I modified the base, fitting a T-Bolt from YakAttack, thus allowing me to fit the light to a section of GearTrac. A mating waterproof socket was fitted to the hull and it was wired into the main electrical loom. The light is easily removed when afloat and can be stored for surf landings if required.

The main wiring loom was made in one piece and fully sealed to prevent corrosion and the ingress of moisture.

  

An anchor trolley was also required so I chose to fit the genuine Hobie trolley system (click the link for the full article). This came supplied with some quality components and was fitted in well under an hour. I modified the suggested routing a little to meet my own requirements. It’s a full length trolley, running from the bow to the stern, permitting the positioning of the anchor anywhere along the trolley run.

As mentioned earlier, on the right hand side of the kayak I fitted a ‘half trolley’, running fully forward from the centre of the kayak. This was fitted purely to permit the use of a drogue whilst at anchor. If you’re subjected to a cross wind whilst at anchor the kayak will tend to swing across the tide. This can be quite annoying and doesn’t provide the best fishing position. With a drogue deployed just ahead of the kayak, with the trolley fully forward, the kayak will (with some tide running) swing back into the tide. I use this method a lot and it works extremely well.

This is my basic fishing setup and as I mentioned earlier I’ve already covered the rigging required for sailing the Outback. The Part 2 ‘Rigging the Outback’ will look at setting up the kayak for live baiting and trolling.