2520 MV Rod Racks - Do-It-Yourself Piker Style

[CaptainJim]

On of my projects this year was building some budget rod racks for the boat to clean up my vberth (usually just leave the rods on the vberth, but my new slip is stern in, and it looks like a dump if I open the cabin door in my slip haha). For under $100 i added 16 rod spaces.


I started with a 48" piece of 1x2 teak, cut in to 24" lengths. I Cetol'ed them and Cetol Glossed them on 3 sides, and then attached the rod rack to the teak and 4200'ed them to the inside of the bulkhead. (last picture). The rod rack is a Dubro Trac-A-Rod 6 rod holder, which is both flexible in design and cheap.

My second rod rack for the port side was a west marine poly rod rack, 4 rod holder. I couldnt get anymore teak, so I used red oak (will be using this from now on, its abotu 1/10th the price of the teak) and Cetolled it. The bracket didnt actually fit perfectly on my 1x2 oak, so I just single screwed it in. This was also 4200'd to the inside. (second picture)


My last rod rack I got a little cocky with and didnt really test it well. The rods are a tad difficult to get into the rack because of the console, but I can do it with creative thinking (opening the cabin porthole and sending the rod out...this will be for seldom used trolling rods) . This is also a dubro trac a rod, 4200d to the bulkhead, on 1x2 24" pieces of cetol'ed red oak. (third picture)

 

[CaptainJim]

Last year we added the box on the splash rail...its just cheap pine with cetol on it...

I keep bucktails, flukeballs, and leader material in it. It's messy at the moment ignore it!

 

[CaptainJim]

i used 4200 on the racks on the left side, in case i needed to remove them...

5200 i used on the stbd side, didnt think they needed to go anywhere....

4200 + some masking tape to hold it in position while the 4200 dries...i was GOING to use epoxy + cabosil but 4200 just seemed so easy.

 

[striperon1]

CaptainJim,

I am going to use your idea of using red oak and 4200 to attach extra rod racks. I am curious about how they are holding up. I did not know that 4200 would hold up.

Also, I trailer my boat and it will take a lot of road pounding. Will 4200 hold up to that?

 

[CaptainJim]

Hard as rocks... no problems even after spending two nights on the boat after having too many with my slip neighbors. Should hold up just fine.

 

[sparky]

Hard as rocks... no problems even after spending two nights on the boat after having too many with my slip neighbors. Should hold up just fine.

The only thing I'd change is the red oak. It'll turn black when (yes, when) it gets damp. There's a reason boats use Teak and Mahogany... or Starboard! You could also try to source some small strips of Ipe, call your local shipbuilder, and see if they have rip-cuts you can buy for short $. I've been scrounging around dock builders and boatshops, and have found plenty of small pieces of Mahogany for what I need.