Hobie Anchor Trolley Kit
When it comes to Anchor Trolley's there is a lot of choice. We usually buy separate components from chandlers and then put it all together, something that has always worked well for us and many others. Hobie however offer an Anchor Trolley Kit so it would have been rude not to have tried it.
Placement can always be tricky; on a kayak we hadn't got wet yet but was needed to be ready for a tournament in a few days after taking delivery was going to make it trickier.
Thank goodness for the internet. We hunted for a few pictures of the kayak sat in the water fully loaded and worked out the waterline, now we could start.
The Hobie Anchor Trolley Kit comes with everything you need, we did add a few little extra bits to ours, but its not necessary.
It's always necessary to get the anchor trolley as far to the stern of the kayak as possible so that you are sat comfortably when at anchor. With the Hobie Revolution I brought it forward a little so that it doesnt hang up with the rudder which I prefer to raise before deploying the anchor. Getting the anchor warp trapped around your rudder could be problematic to say the least.
With the stern roller position chosen, we drilled and fixed into position using the two bolts supplied.
The front roller is a little more tricky as you need to be able to reach the back of it inside the hull to put on the washers and nuts, it was placed as far forward as I could reach. I held the end of a tape whilst reaching forward inside the hull to work this out. The trolley line was then fitted so that we could get an idea of the route the line would take alongside the kayak. The front roller was drilled and fitted.
We then used some line guides which were left over from another trolley kit (YakAttack). An internet search should be able to locate them should you want to do the same. They hold the top running line permanently the bottom running line can then be clipped under for tidy transportation.
This one is just forward of the Gear Pockets and above the water line
A second one was added behind the cockpit. About halfway along the tankwell.
We then added a pair of Clamcleats to lock the anchor trolley when in use, a pair of CL213's to do the job. A zigzag cleat would also do the job as well, we prefer the neat low profile Clamcleats. They were positioned alongside the CT Vantage Seat so easily reached and locked off.
We used a DMM Carabiner which is saltwater resistant clipped to one of the round plastic rings supplied with the kit to finish off the running line and join the two ends using a 3 twist hangman's noose on each. We don't use any bungee with the Hobie Anchor Kit, the running line has a good amount of stretch in it which we think is ideal for anchor trollies, it stays tight against the hull but stretches nicely at anchor to absorb any movement against the anchor warp.
