15 July 2006

Compass Before and After

I made a little change to the way my compass is secured to my kayak. Here are a set of before and after photos. I wanted to place a bungie with some beads here where the compass is so that I could place a spare paddle on the front deck, and with the compass located like this, it was really getting in the way. Here is the new location of the compass, I just threaded the deck lines through the existing holes in the base of the compass, and it is now sort of permanent. I stared at the deck lines on my CD Gulfstream for a long time before I did this though. The deck lines were very tight. I don't know if this is common for all kayaks, but Current Designs puts a lot of tension on them. I was trying to figure out how they make them that tight. The only way I could figure is that they leave the last recessed cleat loose, when they thread the deck line and tie the knots. Then when all of the knots are tied, they then mount the last cleat. Anyway this is how I took the deck lines off, threaded a couple of beads and the compass, and then retied the knots, then totally abused my fingers while pulling the cleat back into place and held it while I tightened the screw.This view shows the new bungie with beads, and the compass located further forward. I can still read the compass easily, and being further forward, is less likely to make me seasick when viewing. The beads work very well for stuffing a GP paddle under, and they work so-so for stuffing the shaft ends of my euro splits under.

3 comments:

Mike J said...

Hi Richard, those pics make good sense. I will probably do the same to either my gulfteam or my sirocco when I return. The CD deck lines are pretty tight!

derrick said...

I've seen that too. You really don't want the decklines too tight since you need to be able to grab them fairly easily. Some guys put little beds along the sides as well just to make them easier to grab.

I just went to small beds myself. I'll have to post some pictures. :)

Richard said...

Yeah, I strung some little beads along the sides on the front deck lines while I had it all apart. I still want to do the same to the rear deck lines. I have had problems getting ahold of them when my fingers are really cold.