Kayaking - Manta Ray 14

Here are the two Manta Rays ready for a little paddling time. Ralph and I put in at Maximo Park in South St. Petersburg and spent about 5-1/2 hours in the water. I would liked to say that the fish feared us, but it was more like they mocked us Fish were caught and thrown back - all trout and all out of season. Most of the time was spent cruising around Indian Key. The single bladed paddles are the backups.

There is a nice canoe/kayak washing station by the gazebo in the background. Bring a bucket or a hose with a reverse fitting (male end) to get the water from the faucet to the kayak.

More info about selecting the Manta Ray is further down on this page.

Maximo Park is located at N27° 42' 37.1 W82° 41' 03.1 (Exit 16 on I275)

After looking at the Scotty rod holder - and it's a fine holder - I realized that it didn't have the versatility that I wanted. Specifically, to hold a fishing rod and a GPS at the same time, and, occasionally, maybe a camera instead of a fishing rod. RAM Mounts offered a way to do this and much more.

The finished mount on the kayak's center console. The 1.5" ball is for the Rod and camera mount and the 1" ball is for the GPS. The ball is lower than the gunnels. The black base is made of Starboard from the local West Marine, which I had left over from the eyepiece case project. It machines with wood tools. The side cuts were at 10.5 degrees and the edges were rounded over with a router. The bottom ball has a little epoxy on the threads to help prevent rotation out of the threaded hole.

The top ball came with the rod holder, the bottom one was a stand-alone part. All of the RAM parts are made very well. This project will set you back about $150. Don't spray 303 on the RAM mount balls. They get slippery.

This is a side profile of the rod holder (top) and GPS mount (bottom) in place before the base was mounted on the kayak. The parts shown here are:

RAP-340 (rod holder & rectangular base), RAM-230 (1.5" double ball), RAM-201 (6" arm for 1.5" balls), RAM-B-236U (1" ball with 3/8"x16 threaded stud), RAM-B-148-GA12U (Garmin 60CS mount with suction cup - the suction cup wasn't used here, but handy in the car). Not shown here: RAM-202AU (1.5" ball to 1/4"x20 camera thread) The base to hold the two RAM balls needs to be custom for your Kayak.

This is the Rod holder and GPS in the kayak (in dry dock). There's no problem swinging the rod to a more upright position. The three ball and socket joints make it pretty flexible.

This is the camera holder and GPS in the kayak In use the camera will be better protected.

If you have a mapping Garmin GPS check out my amateur cartography page.

The back of the ball mount was countersunk for the nuts that hold the bottom of the 1.5" ball. I wanted as few holes in the kayak as possible. The idea was that I could replace the plate with a different configuration, if needed, and reuse the same holes and backing plate. A small amount of silicon glue (RTV) was uses around each of the holes on the kayak to act as a gasket and keep out any water that might work between the base and kayak.

I used a 1/4" piece of UMHW (hard plastic often used for table saw fences) for a backing plate. The stainless hardware is #10, 1.5" x 24 pan head machine bolts. The nuts have nylon inserts to prevent them from coming loose. I didn't use any Loctite out of concerns that a wayward droplet would melt the kayak's plastic. It was a little scary to see how easy the drill went through the kayak's skin. Judging from the transparency of it, this appears to be one of the thinner areas of the Manta Ray's plastic.

The cart was designed so that the dowels fit into the scupper holes of the Manta Ray. Fortunately, all of the scupper hole pairs are the same distance apart. If it's needed for a different kayak the dowels come out and a strap can be used. The dowel ends were triple dipped in 'Plasti Dip', which was purchased at the local Home Depot. It's a cross between rubber and plastic normally used to coat tool handles. Black was the only color they carried. I rounded over the top ends of the dowels before coating. The 2' long, 1/2" threaded rod used for the axel was coated with Top Cote to deter rust and then covered with a small piece of PVC. The blue pad was cut from a Wal-Mart camping mat. The wood is Pine and was lying around the garage and was glued up with Titebond III and later protected with a few coats thinned Urethane.

The scupper poles have been revised since the above photos were taken and they are about 4" longer that what is shown here. This allows them to take full advantage of the scupper holes. The photos below show how they fit when on the cart now. Be VERY careful not to use the scupper holes under the seat. They do not go all the way through and you don't want them to.

To get the 'V' angle right for the top I cut the plywood so that it bent in the middle (almost all of the way through). Then, with the kayak upside down, placed wax paper on the bottom, placed the board on the waxed paper so it bent to match the V of the bottom. With a little weight on each end 5 minute epoxy was put into the open groove of the plywood. When it hardened the top maintained it's V shape. This has the added advantage of leaving a smooth, one-piece top. The corners were rounded with a jig saw later. The only hardware needed so-far was for the axel, which cuts should down on rust issues.

I still need to add a kickstand.

The great kayak hunt is officially on. Along with a couple of friends I braved the uncharted territory of a few local kayak dealers. This was only after reading a pile of reviews and comparing the specs of a dozen or so contenders.

I was looking for a Sit-On-Top in the 13-15' range. At least I had a starting point.

After comparing hull design, deck configuration, hatch placement and storage the leader was the Heritage Manta Ray 14 (14'5"). Second place was the Wilderness System's Tarpon 140 and a distant third was the Redfish 14.

The Manta has better leg room, better hatch placement (6" center hatch was forward of the water bottle holder and easier to get to), bungee covered hatches and a nice paddle rest built into the sides. The two 6" hatches on the Manta have a hard plastic liner instead of the usual nylon sacks and the deck has a few small built-in trays for small items. My only complaint is the center small hatch is about ½" to short to hold my GPS.

In a nutshell, the Manta Ray appears to be better thought out. At over 14' it is a reasonably long boat and a bit heavy at 62 pounds. Tossing it up on the truck's rails - more than 6' above ground level - may be a pain after paddling all day.

Ocean kayaks were out of the running as soon as I sat in one. I didn't like the molded-in footrests -they were uncomfortable and the ridges made it difficult to kneel and get to the front of the boat. A flat bottom and foot pegs appeared to be a better combination, at least sitting on a boat in a showroom.

Each of these models offers an 'angler edition' which consist of an adjustable rod holder on the front console and two flush rod holders behind the seat. I'm not much of a fisherman, but a Scotty or Ram 'rod holder' mount would offer flexibility to mount a GPS or depth finder. The two flush mount rod holders could be used to hold a running light for night trips and, maybe, the occasional fishing pole

Ralph and I went to Sweetwater's kayak demo day. We each tried about 5 different kayaks, including the Manta 14, Redfish 14 and a few sit insides. The sit insides were mainly for speed comparisons. Additionally, we tried out a couple of different paddles.

The Manta has a faster start from a dead stop than the Redfish did. The Redfish turned easier, but didn't track a straight line as well as the Manta. The Redfish was a little more susceptible to the wind also. Two of the three sit insides kayaks that I tried moved a little better than both sit on tops. One sit inside was a bathtub that didn't so anything well. Okay, it was stable.

In the end I went for the Manta Ray 14 in Sand (off tan color). It's having a couple of flush rod holders mounted on it, but otherwise stock. I need to build a rack to store it in the next couple of days. Ralph ordered a blue Manta 14. I'm still trying to decide if the rudder or anchor 'system' is something that I'll use. Since both can be added later I'll get used to the boat first and make that call down the road (river?).

The only place that I had any sticker shock was while looking at the carbon-fiber paddles. I wasn't ready to spend $380 on a stick with wide ends. I ended up with a Werner Shuna, which seemed to be a fair balance between light weight, adjustable feathering and price.

After having the kayak out some here's my unofficial speed results (using Garmin 60CS GPS):

On a calm river (Homosassa) it was pretty easy to maintain 3.1 MPH. Anything above 4 MPH becomes work after a short period (at least for someone new to this).

On the bay with a small chop and loaded with fishing gear I maintained 2.6 MPH and peaked at 4.7 MPH during a 'sprint' across the channel.

In both cases 2 MPH is maintained with almost no effort. For the sake of calculating ETAs on trips I would use 2.5 to 3 MPH, depending on conditions.

The Manta Ray tracked nicely in a 8+ MPH headwind and didn't go off course when the wind was coming at a angle.