Padeye Leash Station

Have you ever got tired of looking for something in the hull that moved around out of reach or slid beyond your reach from the front hatch. I found myself always looking for the mirage drive well cassette I keep inside the hull of the revolution. It always shifted to an awkward place to get to while being transported.

I wanted to install a padeye to leash my mirage drive for safety against it going overboard as suggested in posts on this forum. I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and wanted interior padeyes as well as exterior ones.

My solution was 4 padeyes (2) inside and (2) outisde the hull through bolted with stainless steel screws & nuts, the nut inside the hull. I put one pair to each side of the mast tube of the revolution. I now lash my mirage drive to the padeye next to the mast tube and I have the drive well casette tied off inside the hull with parachute cord tied to a small brass eyescrew screwed into the cassette. Just reach in grab the cord and the cassette is at the other end. This works for anything I wish to have readily available inside the main front hatch while on the water ie: bailer, small dry bag, additional tackle boxes, first aid kit, safety kit etc. Just skoot forward open hatch pull the cord and there is what you want. The interior padeyes keep from having lanyards going between the seal gasket and the hatch.

Just a convenience I elected to add to my kayak. Perhaps others have had similar issues and are looking for a solution.

Revo

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I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

I did that too
Both sides of middle and front hatch I did that on my Outback.

Inside, near the middle hatch I leashed my bilge pump ... and a dry box with sunglasses, extra whistle, etc and that's where I store my keys/wallet.

Up front, inside the front hatch, leashed my extra tackle tray buckets (I have 6 extra Hobie trays that fit in the hatches, inside of two Hobie tray carrier bag thingies, So I can carry 3 extra salt or 3 extra freshwater trays, depending where I'm going, and keep the one I'll use the most in the middle hatch, so I carry 4 tackle trays total on each outing.)

Nice projects guys! In addition to custom padeyes (which I also use for sail rigging and additional lift handles) our Hobies come with some quick and dirty gear anchor mounts as well.

If you lift the lid on your 8" hatches, you'll see two holes near the hinges. They're perfect for Spectra line gear anchors (here securing a boom-bat for the sail and emergency tow line not shown):


At least some of the Hobies have additional eyelets on the under side of the large hatch bungee hooks for more anchors:


Additionally, all the screw-in fittings (about 2 dozen +/- per boat) are interchangeable and available in the catalog:


For instance, there is a plastic screw-in cleat just below the mast hole that is easily swapped out for a padeye -- perfect location for a Drive tether. No drilling required:


Or you can even make a general purpose leash as part of the hull:

(make it out of bungee and it will be retractable!)

Don't need two paddle bungees? Why not turn one into a sail holder?


It's fun to customize your boat and adapt it to your individual needs!