Well, I am now a Hobie-ite, or whatever we're called....
Picked up my new Olive Hobie Outback on April 17
Anyways, I have owned a WS Tarpon 120, then a WS Ride 135 for fishing and freedive spearfishing, both of which I loved, but then I demoed an outback and a Revolution while on vacation in Florida. From that moment on, I was done with holding a paddle and a fishing rod at the same time, trying to keep from being drug into the mangroves or blown backwards while trying to set lines in Lake Michigan for salmon trolling.
I am 205# and fairly fit (surf, freedive, cyclist) and although I felt the Revo was plenty stable, I immediately connected with the outback, and it's roominess (Also, my WS Ride 135 is 31.5" wide, so the outback didn't feel too chubby, and I have since PADDLED the outback and didn't see any problems with that at all)
Now the Rigging...
I sold my previous rig, lock, stock and barrel.... (well, I kept my crate, and anchor trolley)
It had a crate with rod holders that folded out to the side behind my seat, which I really liked, but it weighed a ton
Having the rod holders behind me only duped me once so far (fish on out of view, rod action telegraphing thru the crate and made me think something was on the opposite rod.)
See for yourself...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqvpHOOjejY[/youtube]
So I spent hours pouring over pictures online of rigged boats, and I probably another 2 hours just sitting in the outback trying different configurations, trying to get the rods in front of me, but none felt right.
I wanted to keep the deck clear/flat so I could store it upside down, and mounting them in the trays forward of my hips was a nice reach, but would conflict with the Lowrance unit I plan on installing on the right side tray (1" ram mount)
So I finally decided to ditch the forward mounting idea and switch to flush mount Scotty plates for rocket launchers mounted slightly aft of my seat (which was pretty much mimicked the setup I had on my RIDE)
My rocket launchers are not here yet, so I made a PVC Mockup of rocket launchers on order from ACK.
Then I got my anchor trolley swapped over (harken rollers, and SS Clips to a Pad-eyes front and rear.
Another pic.
I will update this when I get the FF mounted and the rest of my setup done.