Thursday, January 28, 2016

Hi welcome to my blog where with a few tools you can easily mount an outboard to your kayak, certainly your job will be a lot easier if you have scupper holes on your kayak which most sit on kayaks have. This design is based around using your scupper holes.

Photos P1 and P2 show where I decided to mount the bracket at the rear of the Kayak behind the seat ( treated 3 x 2 inch timber ), notice I removed a couple of screws which doubled up as a clips for my seat as well as the bungee cord to clip onto. I will explain why I did this below.

                                                                       P1
                                                                      P2


 Photos P3 and P4 show the complete bracket I made from both sides. What I found is that the scupper holes and bolts through the hull to hold the bracket on their own wasn't enough, the bracket would still move side to side slightly. So I decided to line up the bracket with the two holes either side of the hull and use long bolts to secure the bracket. The majority of the tension holding the bracket is on the scupper bolts, the two other bolts just stop it going left and right. Photos P5 and P6 show the 3x2 bolted in place and it is rock steady.

P3 
                                                                               P4

 P5
                                                                          P6

On one side of the bracket I decided to mount a couple of rod holders, because when the outboard is in its right place you lose the starboard side rod holder because the tiller arm is in the way, so I thought a couple of spares would be great. My tiller arm you will notice is slightly off center towards the port side so for me the tiller is in easy reach. Photos  P6 shows the bracket mounted with the two long bolts which I put a plastic casings around it to prevent damaging the hull and you will see the long bolts either side to line up with the holes. Photo P7 shows the bracket from the other side with the rod holders and the outer bolts on the bracket screwed down and secure

                                                                             P7


The other photos are pretty straight forward, I added my seats and rods, net etc to give you a better idea of the finished product, remembering this particular kayak is a double, however in saying that the same importers I brought this from also have other models where the same fit out would work because they have scupper holes in the right place and what is key is that the outer bolts which secure the bungee & seat are basically in line with the scupper holes. If you find that on your kayak there isn't screw holes to secure the 3x2 like there is on mine you may need to cut out underneath the 3x2 perhaps a few mm so that the hull fits into that gap either side and you would find it should be secure.

Photos P8 and P9 you will notice the tiller arm sits over the starboard rod holder and so when your under power with the motor you can't use that rod holder, when your stopped you certainly can.

P8
                                                                                P9




                                                                   


Photos P10 shows the stainless steel clip I added to the 3x2 so that the seat can attach as wells as the bungee cord.                                              
                                                                            P10


Photo P11 below you will see that I have extended the 3x2 on the opposite side to the outboard and added a simple 6kg ankle weight to balance the weight of the motor. This is optional and you may not have to do this. Simple solution would be to try the motor without a counterweight if it balances fine then your good to go without a counterweight.

P11



Photos P12 & 13 show the bolts underneath the kayak with the cutout bread board washer and the stainless steel washer.
P12
P13



Materials and costs

I used a 1 metre long 12mm stainless steel rod which I cut to length, you could use the smaller 10mm if you like. 3x2 timber I had lying around at home and the smaller bolts are very cheap. You could build this for $20 to $30.

The outboard motor I have on my kayak is a 1.5hp 4 stroke and it was purchased from Sheddies who I highly recommend, Ian is a great guy to deal with.

                                                      http://sheddieswarehouse.co.nz/

There are ton of very helpful videos on Youtube which is where I got the design for my bracket, you can find that Youtube video here.

                               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goOBHCd-Ud0

If you have any queries about the design / build just add a comment below and I will respond as soon as I can.

Happy Kayaking !