My personal Mothership....

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by dorado50

I would be more concerned with having a radar on that boat considering you'll be fishing and cruising So Cal waters...... Just stick your kayak between gunnel and cabin(use towels for padding). It will be fine!. If it doesn't fit get a mini-x.......

Radar is great but far more necessary on a larger boat. I've probably got over a thousand hours offshore running in the dark on skiffs under 25 feet without radar, and have only had a few instances where fog was a real issue. Twice heading out for Mexico out of Shelter Island, and once fishing PV. I actually have radar for my skiff but almost never use it. For me I'm more worried about things radar can't pick up in a skiff: like logs, pallets, semi submerged junk, kayakers etc....

Radar tends to give people overconfidence in my honest opinion. I once was fishing with a guy on his 25 skippy flybridge with radar and we got fogged out. While running in at a good twenty knots (crazy IMO) he almost ran right over some kayakers fishing right outside the harbor. He wasn't even paying attention just watching the screen and though he could see the breakwall he never saw them until I yelled at him when I saw them.

I'm with you on kayak storage. That boat has tuna written all over it. I'd be more worried about setting it up for offshore use then anything else.

A while back we did a three kayak trip aboard my buddies 23CC. This is how we stored the yaks.



Two X-13s on one side and a bigger Kevler Kayak on the other with no problems.

I actually built a custom aluminum tower and seat post for that boat but it's set up for finding tuna not carrying kayaks:




If I was him I'd concentrate on fish areas like the 302 and 9 with that skiff this summer season then figure out what he needs to change next winter.

Jim