La Jolla cudas (X-factor ??)
 

Fished LJ today with a buddy of mine. He was in my navigator, so I took my dad's X-factor. We had some nice cuda action on the iron, and my buddy lost a yellow on a kroc.

Now when we got in, we threw our stuff in the hatch just to paddle around and play in the surf. I tried to ride a wave and I got flipped. When I came up, my flushmount was floating next to me???I flipped the yak over and found that the rivets had pulled through. My question now is what should I do? I have the flushmount, but I don't know if I should just re-rivet it back on, because i don't know if there is damage to the holes used for the rivets. Is this something covered under warranty, they are factory installed flush mounts.

Are you saying, you tore out a flush mount without a rod in it?????
I have never heard of that one before.
Should be a pretty easy fix, I am sure the guys at OEX can help you out.

I'm sure that OEX can fix it for you. You could probably do it yourself if the holes weren't too badly mangled. Rivets usually bend back a little if they get pulled. From my experience, they usually just leave a slightly larger hole with some jagged edges. If there was no major tearing of the plastic you should be able to put the flush mount back in. Make sure you use a gasket or a good bead of 3M 5200 or Marine Goop. Use stainless steel bolts with a washer that is wider than the hole. Better yet; get a strip of aluminum, drill a couple of holes in it that match up to bolt holes and use that as a backer.

This backer plate for my flush mounts is a little bit excessive, but you'll get what I'm talking about.
http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegall...16_Medium_.jpg

I pulled the flush mount out, re-shaped the hole, turned the holder 45 degrees, did a little plastic welding to fill the gap and re-installed the holder. The backing plate makes it stronger than the original set-up. Anytime you can use a washer or a backer it will be much stronger than just a rivet. I use these short pieces of aluminum C-channel as backers on some of my RAM rod holders. The nylon cable clamps give me convenient places to zip-tie cables to keep them out of the way.

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegall...06_Medium_.jpg

Yes Jim, there was no rod and reel in it and I still don't understand how it happened.

I was actually going to try that idea with a cutting board for the flushmounts behind the seat because the thin plastic flexes, it was one of the front ones that ripped out. The plastic pieces that stick out on the rivet straightened, but I don't know how the wave could have gotten that much force under the flushmount.

Probably had alot of stuff bouncing around inside the hull and whatever it was hit the mount hard from the inside. That is a bummer. I never really thought about a flush mount actually being ripped out. Makes me want to think twice before deadsticking with an iron. It would be bad to get flipped over AND have the flush mount ripped out by a big fish. I do however exercise care when setting the drag.

that was an idea too, which my buddy mentioned but the only thing there was a small bait rod, and i dont think it could have gotten enough force from only a few inches to pull it out. the only other things were in the front hatch and werent small enough to move into the hull deeper. either way, my dad got metal rivets today and reinstalled it with washers behind the rivet so all is well. thought about nuts/bolting it, but he wants to try the metal rivets first