Sealine smartrack issues

Just a comment on an issue that arose on my wife’s Epic 18 during the Yukon Riverquest, fairly early in this years race a small pin that holds the adjusting slider to the pedal slid to the inside of the pedal and the pedal popped off leaving no riudder control nor anything to brace her foot against. The pin simply slid to the inside and couldn’t be seen by her pout on the river, the good news is that she was able to borrow another Epic out on the water from another racer who was withdrawing, when we were able to get the kayak back in Carmacks we were able to fix it by epoxing the pin back in. She was able to complete the race and finish.



Believe it or not on our next paddle in less than 10 minutes on the water the pin on the other side came out the same way. I managed to fix it the same way. Believe it or not on her very next paddle while out on a kayak course the oriignal side pin came out again despite having being epoxied in. Well at that point we took the Epic into Kelowna Kayak where we had bought it, Ray the owner quickly got on the phone to Eric at Sealine who immediately sent up a brand new pedal assembly set complete with the newer aluminum sliders.



Eric advised this was only the 2nd out of a 1000 sets that he had heard this problem with. He also advised that Current Designs kayaks will now be handling the warranty claims for the Smarttrack system very shortly. Apparently Wenonah has purchased Smartrack from Sealine and is having CD handle the warranty etc for it. Not sure if Wenonah will be manufacturing a version of Smartrack or not.



Hope this info helps those with this system.

short followup
Also just wanted to say how pleased we were with the quick response to the issue by both Kelowna Kayak and Sealine, kudos to both Ray and Eric, they were most helpful.

Good news
that SmartTrack rudders have been picked up by Wenonah/Current Designs. I converted my Feathercraft to a SmartTrack several years ago, and am happy with the performance. But I have read the many posts on P-Net about problems with the pedal systems, and while I have had no problems to date I had more or less resigned myself to replacing the complicated pedals with simpler Sea Dag ones if a problem arose.



Jim

That is great news
both my wife and I have them on our QCC’s, and she broke one of the plastic runners on her first QCC which Florida Bay outfitters repaired.

On her new QCC she has the aluminum ones, but I have the older plastic ones on mine, and figure one of these days I might break one.



I hope they keep making them.



Thanks for the heads up!



Cheers,

JackL

Smartrack escapade
A few years ago, I converted our Perception Shadow and Eclipse to Smartrack (broke three screw extractors removing the Perception rudders). (In 2005 we sold the Perceptions to neighbors and purchased WS Tempests.) At the kayak fest in Charleston, SC, in 2004, one of the sliders in my wife’s Shadow broke, and the steel hinge pin disappeared and was never seen again. I found and cut and filed down a ceramic fuse from a previous car, and my wife was able to finish the festival. When we returned home, we called Sealine, and they promptly replaced both sides of the rudder system and requested only that we return the damaged one.



It’s good to hear that we didn’t sell orphans to our neighbors. Thanks for the information.

I’m beginning to feel
gunshy!



Jim

$.02
build your own with yakima footbraces, a buncha screws, a ss. hinge and some glassed plywood all connected to the rudder wire with 1/8" hollow vectran line. It may not be very adjustable on the water but I don’t find my legs changing length on the water.