Rod Holders For The New SeaArk

I was trying to figure out what to do for rod holders on my new boat. I'm going to have a t-top put on it, but the last t-top I had with rocket launchers didn't do anything but give me a headache when I ran into them, and I never used them. if I was heading offshore and was taking 10 rods with me, it might be different, but for me and a buddy to fish, it's not necessary. Also, with the t-top, the rod holders on the side of the console are useless except to maybe hold tools and a landing net.

I ordered a couple of Starboard rod holder sets from Boatoutfitters. They do a lot of custom Starboard items which are nice, but stupid expensive, These weren't bad and cheaper than I could have ordered the Starboard from my distributor and spent a whole day making patterns and jigs to cut everything out.

The mounting feet attach to the rod holders and the entire thing is intended to be mounted permanently. I didn't want then sticking out and snagging stuff when i wasn't using the boat for fishing, so I cut out some cradles from some Starboard I had. The cradles will attach to the ribs and will stay there, and the rod holders slip down in them. They are only 1" high, so they won't present any kind of snag hazard. I have a set for each side of the boat. Pretty simple project.. I'll go out and install everything tomorrow and add photos to this thread.

kudos on the slip in cradle idea. my thought tho is that they might slide horizontally out of the cradle. Are you going to attach a piece on the opposite side to prevent this? might be an idea worth looking into.

actually going back and enlarging the pic it appears you will have a cradle on both sides which would take care of that possible issue.

Yes, there is a piece on each side of the rod holder to keep it from slipping out sideways. The holders will just pull up out of the cradles. I'm also using two screws on each cradle to keep it from twisting..

My project for today. I cut out some pieces of Starboard that I'm going to mount the fuse holder and terminal strips inside the console. I'm going to epoxy the blocks to the inside of the console so I don't have to drill into my console to mount anything. I radiuses the edges on the blocks, not because anyone is going to see them, I just don't consider it finished until everything has been done that can be.

The plain block on the right is actually a Stern Saver that I cut out which will also be epoxied to the transom, no drilling. It doesn't show well in the photo, but the bottom edge is cut on a bevel to reduce the amount of water turbulence going over the transducer.
The big box sporting good stores sell the Stern Saver for $50, but I cut mine out of a piece of scrap starboard, beveled it, and rounded the edges. It's about a $1 piece of material. The guy who markets the Stern Saver claims to have invented a magic adhesive that works on Starboard, but West System G Flex works fine and is available everywhere on line and at West Marine. You need to sand the side that is going to be glued with 80 grit and then heat treat the back side with some kind of flame, not enough to actually melt it. You are just burning the lubrication off of that surface so the epoxy will stick. I'm also going to try to glue a piece for a low load application with a hot glue gun, just as an experiment. There are no special skills needed to work with Starboard. if you can run a table saw and a drill press, you can end up with some nice looking projects.

Nice work Bob!

Here's how the removable rod holders work.

Those look nice!... Nice job!

Thanks for sharing!

The access door for the console came last night. Really nice work from a place in N.C called Fin Addict and cheaper that boat outfitters.

Yesterday turned into frustration trying to mount the rod holders. With 4 cradles for each one it was next to impossible to align the cradles and drill and tap holes so that everything was the same. Thinking about it this morning while having coffee, I made some sketches at the dining table. This is what I finally came up with. Each rod holder gets two one piece cradles, held on by a machine screw on each side. It was really interesting cutting these out on the table saw with lots of test cuts and adjusting the jigs for the correct depth. I can live with this now. It looks a lot cleaner and there is still noting sticking out to snag clothing or tackle.

All I have left is to drill and countersink for the screws.