By John Sealy
I have been working on outfitting my 700 for fishing and other activities.
Here’s a few pictures I thought you may enjoy.
- Me with my grandchildren, how many kayaks/small boats could you do this in?
- My preliminary Railblaza console set up (got good ideas from Joe Stauder) and the first rough version of the ‘Sealy Seat.’ I hate that the picture has a brown bottle stuck in a hole in the hull. Picked bottle up to trash it.
- Picture of happy customer with seat.
- The 700 at dock of Merchants Mill Pond State Park ready to go look for gators and snakes….found both.
Note Railblaza base mounts on transom. Console set up for rod holder, GPS/phone holder, and GoPro mount.
The noodle sections attached to the cockpit edges in front of the seat are notched on top so I can lay the paddle crosswise when fishing and want it close at hand.
The two noodles outside at rear they are just overkill and used as bumpers on docks and helped protect the boat when in the bed of my truck. They’re not in the way attached to pad eyes, and thought I could feed them to a gator 😀 if needed.
Thanks John,
Indeed, beautiful pictures!
Having kids on board can be so much fun 🙂
The console looks awesome – Most practical for whatever you do out there… 😉
Yoav
John,
Those are excellent pictures. I am looking forward to having such grand adventures with my grandchildren when the crew arrives in June.
Especially, I like the thru holes in the W700 saddle seat. So many options for rod holders, camera mounts, seat swivels, and joy stick pivots are available without drilling a single hole thru the hull.
That beer bottle gave me an idea…
Thanks!
Larry J.
Those holes in the saddle are just the end of structural elements – molded-in columns that help support the ‘roof’ of the saddle when passengers sit on it.
Interestingly, all SOT kayaks feature similar columns in their hulls, and those columns’ main purpose is to support the yak’s deck when people sit or attempt to stand on top of it. The SOT’s columns are dubbed “Scupper Holes” although they’re not really ones, as they regularly convey water from the kayak’s underside upwards and onto the deck and sitting area 🙁
For this reason, SOT kayak vendors also offer “Scupper Plugs” 😀
Those same mislabeled SOT holes got further unjustified promotion through another false notion advanced by SOT kayak vendors, namely that SOTs they offer for sale are “self bailing”, a term that has a specific, well defined meaning that’s totally different from what these holes do –
A self bailing hull is one that’s outfitted with a special valve at its low rear end. This valve automatically opens when the boat moves fast enough, and the water that’s accumulated in the hull’s bilge is sucked out by the low pressure in that area behind the stern. As soon as the boat’s speed decreases, the negative pressure at its stern goes up and back to normal, and the bailing valve closes automatically, so that water won’t flow through it into the hull, and flood it.
In contrast, water that gets into a SOT’s hull stays there, since it has nowhere to go, and the SOT design offers no way for the user to perceive this water in the hull unless they take it out and examine it on shore. The only way for a SOT user to know there’s water getting into the hull of their SOT is when there’s already too much of it in, and the kayak becomes too hard to paddle and rides too low in the water 🙁
Thanks for the kind comments. The saddle holes can indeed be convenient. I pulled the old wine bottle from the Perquimins River in NE North Carolina to throw away and the hole was the best place to put it as I was close to my take-out spot. I also found myself using the hole in front of my seat for a quick spot to place my fishing rod.
My “console” is very preliminary. All of the Railblaza components are mounted to a 1/2 inch thick section of black cutting board material. I will be reducing the size of the board as it is heavy. Most importantly however it is attached to the saddle with Industrial Velcro. Surprisingly secure and an idea I got from Wavewalk dealer Joe Stauder. Can lift it off to store expensive components when not in use and to make room for other passengers like my grandchildren.
Lastly, I wanted to say more about the very preliminary seat design. As you can see in the picture with my grandchildren, I don’t have to use a seat. For me personally, however; I wanted to try something that would provide butt and back support on long hauls. For the record, the seat both solves and creates problems. Even though it can fold down “some” it must be dealt with when entering the 700 from behind the seat location. Obviously slipping back on the saddle to lift the “bow” when approaching a shore is also a different exercise. So it limits one of the benefits of Wavewalk design; the ability to move fore and aft with ease. Also the seat and its cutting board base (1/2″ thick, 12″ wide, 18″ long) weighs about 16 ibs.
However, limitations aside the boat seat with a added nylon cover.is VERY comfortable for the back and butt for obvious reason and it adds a bit of height for those of us with really bad backs. The incredible lateral stability of the W700 makes use of the seat possible. You will also be interested that the seat is bolted to a cutting board base and the base attached to the saddle with velcro and is surprisingly stable….no issues there. Nice also that it lifts off for transport etc. I can actually walk into my 700 holding the seat and then place it. I plan to continue refining the design.
By the way, sat in a fancy fishing kayak with a seat at a kayak dealer recently and nearly had to ask for help getting out of the darn thing.
Cheers, John
John,
I’m sure dealers of common (mono) kayaks, including fancy ones, are used to having to help their clients get up from the seats of those kayaks… It’s not that easy for many people, even if the kayak rests on the solid floor of a dealership 😀
One more thing that Wavewalk dealers don’t have to worry about 😉 …
Yoav
Yoav