The Jack yak Goes Sot Yot

Well, I'm pretty much set up for the summer now. I've got a house 300 metres from the beach, I've got a C-Tug trolley to take my prowler 15 there, College finishes on thursday and the photography business is ticking over while leaving me plenty of time to get myself wet. The prawns are here, the crabs are here, the lobsters are here and the bass should arrive soon. I'm sorted.

And the Jack yak is all tarted up and pimped to the gills. Until recently the only modifications from standard were the rear toggle moved to the rudder attachment point, fitting of scupper stoppers (for flat-calm and rivers) and a few bits of shock cord tied on as leashes. Not now. Oh no. Not now.

First up was the Humminbird 215 portable. The lead to the transducer is currently coming out of the hatch as I ahve yet to get around to drilling a hole for it. It's a big hole. Thoughts so far? A good bit of kit, easy to use and obvious to read. More bulky than a non portable unit obviously but not too bulky to annoy me. in fact, aesthetics aside it's no bother at all. except it doesn't find enough fish.

Then came the Fladen rod holders. Choice of three mounts included. Solid, well made and well thought out. That's the bait rods catered for - trolling will still be from the rear flushmounts.

Next was the Lidl sale. Everything was carabinered or bow shackled. Seat attachments were replaced with stainless carabiners, a simple anchor trolley was made up and a double bowline/grab rope/tow line/mooring line was also added. Had to use them up you see.

And then, today, la creme de menthe. A Pacific Action 1.5 sail. Now, I am no DIY'er. The destructions scared the hell out of me. the bits confused me. etc etc. Besides, it wasn't designed for a Prowler 15 - but what the hell, where there's a will there's a way.

First off, I didn't want to attach it to the carry toggle - I wanted that free and that's also were my long bit of string is attached. A quick trip to the Chandlers and I had a stainless thing to attach it to, with a small bow shackle added to allow the clip to be the right way around:



Then, with the shockords at the front attached, I placed some climaflex pipe lagging around the bottoms of the sliding mount (the indentations and ridges on the P15 left little in the way of contact points) and then measured and drilled the holes for the side loops, attached the straps and bingo:



Then, I brought down the lines at the rear, saw where they came too, drilled and screwed in some more of the chandlers stainless things and popped some carabiners on (although i'll probably put the supplied clips on to use the locking cam cleats). These fit under the rod holders so aren't an additional encumbrence and are in easy reach.



I tried it out a few times in the garden and was happy that it functioned. Spent an hour on the beach with the kids, noted an inshore wind and flattish sea and so this evening I decided to go and have a brief play and make sure everything worked okay and handled all right:











It worked fantastically well. Nothing was in the way, nothing was an annoyance, the paddle arc wasn't affected, the sail popped up with ease, moved into position with ease and broke down again with ease. The only problem was that the wind had dropped to nothing and so I don't know what it's like to be under sail yet! Maybe tomorrow I'll have an update on that score for you.

regarding the sail: for the ease of fitment, 9/10. For the quality of build, 9/10. For the ease of opening and breaking, 10/10. I'm confident to try it in a reasonable blow now.

Just leaves the thigh straps and rudder now.....