Trident 15 rigging

I finished the majority of rigging for my new battleship over the last two nights. It was fun starting from scratch with some knowledge from past experiences in rigging the Tarpon. I finished everything but the front mounted Rod holders. I need to get on the water and fish to decide what will work best there. The modular rod pod cover will pick up the slack here with its mounting locations until i decide on the best locations.

The first item was the Fish Finder. I pulled the Cuda 350 from the Tarpon with some coaxing to install in the new ride. First thing i noticed was the corrosion in the power and ground cable. I had to cut a good 12" off the length to get to clean copper. Luckily location of the battery in the new Yak allowed me some room for cable length.

Installing the FF under the Sonar Shield was an easy affair. I had plenty of room to access to the mounting bolts through the front hatch making life much easier.



A good heaping of Goop and a slick finger and I'm pretty sure i have a water tight seal in this location. Speaking of goop is decided to go the goop method of installing the transducer in the center-line of the Yak. I had issues getting it to set straight but I'm happy with the final outcome. I don't know if i have any bubbles under the transducer yet. I made the best attempts to avoid this. Time will tell if i have a good install soon enough. I also installed the battery bag in the front hatch. This is a cool ad-don. It will keep my battery and fuse high and dry and make hooking up the battery a breeze.



Moving to the back of the Yak i decide to take advantage of the tank well and make a crate. This is a new venture for me as i opted out of a crate on my previous ride. I went to Office Depot and purchased two Large file crates. These are thinner and lighter than milk crates but should work fine. I cut the bottom out of one and used this as a top for the other crate. I have seen this on the web so I'm snagging others ideas. I used zip ties as the hinge and a Bungee ball as the lock. I thru a piece of para cord attached to the side of the crate and top to avoid the top from opening to much and falling out of reach while on the water. This setup looks like its gonna work great. Plenty of storage. i can open close and lock with one hand and in the event (or when) i capsize the contents of the crate will stay in place. The crate is held in place with the original bungees in the tank well and a additional bungee to make sure its secure

[mmanolis2001]

While at the back i decide to install a flush mount scotty holder for the Yak-Attack light/flag pole. This was a easy enough and a good glop of goop sealed the deal.




If anyone has not seen this its a great item and i highly recommend it. It folds up into the flag/carrying case and fits into the crate. The light is a Tec-lite 2 led lite which is plenty bright and will last 100hr on 2 AA batteries. The assemble will also fit into a rod holder snugly.

Another first for me is a anchor trolley. I had a Plastic O-ring and two line guides form the parts bin i was just lacking two pulleys and some drive to install. I went to Home Depot and bought two small pulleys for little money. Not sure how it will handle the salt but who cares. They were cheap. I used the existing deck line locations at the front and rear of the Yak to attach a section of bungee and the pulleys. I placed two guides on the pull cord front and aft to control the cord. The setup seems to work great. I still need to buy a clam cleat but i can clip off the rope on a eye until then. The assembly moves freely and is not in the way at all. this will allow me to anchor or more importantly use my drift sock more effectively.





The maiden voyage is tomorrow. I will test all the rigging and let you know the results.

OH and Thanks Redfish for the tip on the Harris Teeter insulated grocery bag. I picked it and a six pack up today on the way home from work. It fits perfectly in the rod pod. A bungee around the sucpper support and thru the handle and its secure. Hopefully it will stink of fish tomorrow.

[Grady-Black]

Man, I see what you have been doing lately!
You really have that bad boy rigged already.
Looks incredible!!
GB

[jffoley]

Looks good. Nice work indeed!! Good luck on the maiden voyage. You gonna crack a bottle of champagne to celebrate? Not on the bow. Just pop the cork, take a sip and spill a little over her!

[mmanolis2001]

Thanks for the kind comments.

I learned allot of things from today's trip.

1. The anchor Trolley works great with the drift sock. i was able to control my drift easily. I did not test it with an anchor yet but that will be tomorrow.
2. The crate was also a nice addition. I did not do allot of fishing today but it was simple to access it sitting side saddle and everything was well within reach.
3. The FF setup work as expected. I was actually able to move slightly forward and access all the buttons by hand. Not as far away as i first thought. The battery bag is also really nice.
4. While the scotty mounts on the rod pod are nice anything mounted on it gets in my way. I'm going to install two Ram mounts on the flat area on both sides of the FF. These will be easy enough to access and will work better for trolling.
5. The flush mount holders in the rear are in a good location. I can reach back while sitting and pull a rod out without issues.
6. I like the stock placement of eyes on the deck. I don't think i will have to add anymore at this time.
7. Took me some time to get used to the molded foot pegs and rudder pedals. I spent a good 20 Min's just adjusting these to get a good fit.

It was a good test run today minus the self rescue practice issues. That will take some more tries to get down.

[Redfish12]

Where did you get the bungee balls? I have all of the supplies to make my anchor trolly, wasn't going to use pulley's though. Do you think they are necessary?

I like your crate a lot, going to have to make something similar for when live-lining ends and I actually have to start using lures again!

[MDSmith370]

The pulley's make a huge difference in my opinion. I didn't use them with my first trolley but put them on my new one. Moving the anchor from front to back in a strong current is significantly easier.

[mmanolis2001]

Where did you get the bungee balls? I have all of the supplies to make my anchor trolly, wasn't going to use pulley's though. Do you think they are necessary?

I like your crate a lot, going to have to make something similar for when live-lining ends and I actually have to start using lures again!

I got the Bungee balls from Home Depot. As for the trolley needing pulleys I'm not sure. This is the first trolley i have used. The pulleys were only a couple bucks from Home Depot and they work good. It takes no effort to move the trolley back and forth. I only tried it with the drift sock so i don't know how it will handle the anchor and added stress. I don't see any issues but only testing will tell.

[surfdog]

very nice job. i used the ram revolution rod holders, ram makes a narrow area mount. i used them on the hobie revo. the backing plate is very sturdy

[Grilled]

nice job indeed!

[mmanolis2001]

Got my ram mounts in today and finished the rigging of the Trident. I decided to install them in the front next to the sonar shield. They should work well here. This will free up the deck and still allow me to pull or place a rod in there from the seated position.



With them hung out to the side i should be able to troll two rods without the rod or line interfering with my paddling. This will still have to be tested though


I'm gonna test them out with the new transducer install tomorrow.

I think this wraps up all the rigging for this Yak. I don't think i will need anything else at this time. Let me know if I'm missing something important?