Rigging a new Ocean Kayak Prowler

By Matt Kim

Still have a couple of finishing touches to add, but thought I'd share some photos of the freshly rigged Prowler 15. This project includes a flushmount rod holder, a Ram rod holder and a Ram mount for the fish finder.

Step one: assemble the hardware. Stainless steel bolts and nuts won't corrode and the backing plates were cut from a cheap cutting board and pre-dtrilled with my mounts.

Placement is important - figure out where they are going to fit well and then only drill one time. Once I figured out where I wanted everything placed it was time to drill the holes.


Here's a below deck shot. The white things are the backing plates made from a cutting board. These provide for extra stability and reduce stress on the hull where I drilled. A good amount of Marine Goop in between the backing plate and the deck provides some extra protection against drip leaks.


And the finished view from the top.


Next step was mounting the transducer. I decided to go with the indirect mounting method MolBasser turned me on to. Finding pool noodles in winter is a pain so I plucked some foam packing material out of the trash at work. Cut a hole in the shape of the transducer and set it in place with marine goop.


Borrowed another idea from MolBasser's NorCal crew and decided to use rechargable AA's to power the FF. Picked up a water tight locking tupperware from 99 Ranch market and fitted it with a water tight strain relief. Soldered a 2-pin hitch connector to an 8 cell battery holder from Radio Shack, and added some carved up sections of foam to keep everything in place. The 2500mAH NiMH batteries should run the Eagle 245 for about 14 hours between charges.

Decided to put the battery box up in the bow. My experience with using adhesive velcro patches is that half the time they separate at the hook and loops like they should, and the other half one side of the adhesive gives way and pops free. Found a product used to hold shipboard TVs in place while wandering the isles at West Marine. Swapped out the straps they came with for some 3/4" nylon webbing with side lock buckles. The section of pool noodle takes up the "v" space in the bow and leaves a flat surface to place the battery box on.


And here's what it looks like with the box strapped in.