: well here goes: with respect, i think you should reconsider the rails and
: raised loop.

: you mainly have recessed on the rear of the yak and raised on the front(some
: recessed in one area). for unity and clarity on such a small boat i think
: you should consider one basic approach.

: and as these raised rails don't raise anything except themselves (the lines
: still are flush), they will only serve to be bash points, knuckle bangers,
: finger traps and water directors right into your face in waves. with
: respect again, i would expect rails like this with a little chrome on
: 1950's motor boats. on such a small boat like a yak, largish deck
: appurtanences actually look large.

: so my take would be to install all the recessed, and don't install or just
: temporarily install the rails and raised fitting and sleep on it a bit.
: less work for now, too.

Mike

With respect thanks for all the positive comments. First I didn’t believe you so I took the Guillemot cockpit layout and offset the inside perimeter by 3/8”. I then offset that by 4” to account for approximately half of my body thickness then took a measurement of my reach when extending my paddle forward. Low and behold it looks like maybe I may hit my knuckles on them by about 3”. Too late they are already permanently mounted. I guess I will just look at them as away to protect the decks from the shaft of my paddle. If I wanted to – which I don’t - replace them with the recessed fittings it would create another problem. Instead of knocking my knuckles I would be hitting my knees on the shoulders of the fittings inside the hull.

As far as the shock cord laying flat on the deck this is only true if I would just look at my boat and never paddle it. After all they are there to fasten stuff to your deck. I guess if I put a 2 or 3” thick deck-bag under them with a map then mount a compass ahead of that they wouldn’t lay flat. And I might just knock all of that stuff off of my deck if I don’t modify my paddle stroke.

For the - they belong on a 1950’s boat. (Paraphrased) Since stuff from the past is coming back in style I guess if you use these rails you would be ahead of your time. With respect again! I might call the local chrome people to see if they have found a solution for chroming ash. They may look even bigger chromed.

Respectfully yours

Mike

P.S. thanks for your concern we’ll let you know if we run into all of these problems with our rails. I might just have to digress and sand them off.