Mark Beilby from the UK recently shared a pic of his new Old Town Predator 13..one look at this amazing set up peaked our interest so we asked Mark to tell us more. We really like the use of our system on this kayak, Mark has truly captured the versatility of the RAILBLAZA system and clearly chose a platform that would allow him to fully customize it to suit his needs…Mark begins

Ok well where do I start, the project I was undertaking was quite big but needed first to know what to put on the kayak that would make my life at sea more comfortable. So I then got a list of what I thought I’d like, but it’s not as simple as that trying to make sure all the components work with each other so made a diagram showing how it would all work together this took me about a week to do.

Next came the kayak, now the choice of kayak was quite hard as what I needed to put on it would have to fit, so I went to a show and made up templates of everything and doing so enabled me to position and work out quite easy where to put everything this was why I went for the Old Town Predator 13 due to the amount of blank space there was.

OK so there I am with the new Predator 13 and boxes full of electronics happy days. first thing I installed was the fusion 205a sound system this had two speakers and I bought an additional docking station plus the Wi-Fi module, in order for this not to overheat I had to place it in an area which was roomy this I why I choose the space at the front, it acts like a giant boom box!!

You will note the position of the 205 and the docking station these just slid into place, I also had a thought to not only increase the sound quality but to also reduce hull slap this is where I choose to soundproof the hull inside with 10mm close cell waterproof self-adhesive foam. I must warn people using this stuff once you place it down its not coming back off so make sure you get the position right before sticking down.

Once the 205 and station plus speakers were in, I connected the station to the 205a which keeps the phone watertight and fully charged when not in use. Next came the 798 si hd Humminbird really easy to fit and the si transducer fitted in no problem. Then came the Simrad this works with all fusion equipment and connects in series with the use of its cables to create a complete system that can communicate with each other, also the Simrad chart plotter can change all the tracks for music as well.

The reason why I opted for a separate plotter is that it can take the platinum plus charts but the 798 cant. All of the cables are taken through self-adhesive trunking which goes the length of the boat this keeps all wires etc. neat and tidy.

Now for the lights this was the hardest thing to do on the boat as there were so many wires involved, but the trunking kept it all tidy. I went for blue in the cockpit because it’s the best known night vision color without affecting your main night vision, the red was just so I could see the back of the boat really, and four strips of 16 leds for front and back these green leds are supposed to attract baitfish that means it can also attract predators as well. These lights are also a safety feature on the boat when launching first thing in the morning or last thing at night  you can see what you’re doing, all these lights work on 3 independent switches blue ,red, green.

I decided to put on the MinnKota power station this can take up to a size 27 battery everything is powered by this box, the 55lb riptide also powers from this.

RAILBLAZA, the perfect solution

I had to come up with the perfect solution for moving things around the boat like rod holders, cup holders I needed flexibility and the only company that provided this was RAILBLAZA, their products are awesome,  the combinations and versatility is unmatched this is why I chose them.

Everything can be easily un-done and moved with this product, would recommend it to anyone, well done for such a great line of products guys. Well that’s all for now please feel free to ask more in-depth question, as I could go on forever, Regards Mark B, UK. leave a comment below

Fillet Table II – mounted on SidePorts

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Check out the feedback Marks kayak has received on the Old Town Facebook page HERE