[Jeffonc]

yellowsub asked for some how-to on anchor trolleys. I've got a pretty low cost, low tech version. Saw it on another site and thought the design was pretty elegant.

Loop then knot the ends of a 20" length of shock cord and slide the loop through eyelets mounted on either end of the yak. The knot should be big enough to not slip through the eyelet. These provide your shock absorbers for waves, wake, wind, etc... and enough flex to allow you to make a loop around the cleat

From there you clip a carabiner to the looped shock cord, and run the trolley line through the carabiners. Attach both ends of the trolley line to on O-ring. Anchor line runs through the O-ring.

The beauty of this model is that you simply pop the carabiners off, slip the loops of shock cord out of the eyes, and the whole thing is instantly removed from the boat.

But it didn't quite work for me - the eyes that my shop installed are too small to slip the doubled shock cord through, so I used the next best thing to Duct Tape - cable ties! Its a little less elegant than the original, but has worked well so far.

Parts list:
2 small carabiners (I cheaped out and went with zinc)
1 O-ring (1.5-2")
4' shock cord
30' trolley line (I used 4mm cord)
2 eyelets
1 cleat
optional: 2 cable ties (do yourself a favor and get a big enough eyelet, or smaller shock cord)

eyelet at each end attached to the kayak


cable tie, shock cord & carabiner at front


cable tie, shock cord & carabiner at rear


O-ring


cleat

 

[yellowsub]

thanks for the detailed pics and information. I'm going to work on a setup tomorrow. Do you or any of the others you fish with use a drift sock (sea anchor)? I spent the past three days bass fishing down in Pender county and conditions being what they were, I think a drift sock would have helped greatly.
Again, many thanks for the anchor trolley information. yellowsub.

 

[backlash]

I bought an anchor trolley set-up from Capt Dick's and installed it them on both sides of the kayak that I had. Very Handy for controlling the postion of the boat when anchored. Worked great with a drift sock as well. You won't regret adding this little feature to your yak.

 

[Jeffonc]

I found some squishy 3mm shock cord last night at REI that I think I can double and still squeeze through the eyelets. Going to see if I can eliminate the cable ties and clean up the system a bit.

One thing I saw in the Native Ultimate anchor system that I might steal was that they had the o-ring tied to one end of the trolley line, but the other end attached with a clip which was tied to the other end of the line - when you get out to wade, you just unhook the clip from the o-ring, and clip it to your belt. keeps the kayak with you.