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Terms of Use

The ground rules for using YakRigged — editorial scope, DIY safety, affiliate links, and content licensing — written like a person, not a lawyer.

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Plain-English summary. YakRigged is an editorial site about kayak fishing. We publish opinions and how-tos in good faith, but you're the one drilling the hole in your boat. Use our content as a starting point, not as a substitute for professional advice or your own judgment. Don't scrape the site, don't repost articles verbatim, and don't email us in bad faith — outside that, enjoy the site.

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your use of yakrigged.com and any content we publish on it (the "Site"). By reading articles, subscribing to the newsletter, or otherwise interacting with the Site, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please stop using the Site.

1. Editorial nature of the content

Everything on the Site is editorial commentary, opinion, and how-to documentation based on the authors' personal experience and testing. It is not:

  • Professional engineering advice.
  • Boating safety certification or training.
  • Medical, legal, financial, or insurance advice.
  • A warranty that the gear we recommend will work in your specific situation.

We do our best to be accurate. We test the gear we review and we install the rigs we describe. But specifications, prices, model numbers, and manufacturer policies change without notice — and conditions on your boat and your water are not the same as ours.

Always verify critical information with the manufacturer, a qualified professional, or your local regulations before relying on it.

2. DIY safety — read this even if you skip the rest

A lot of our content is hands-on: drilling kayak hulls, installing flush-mount rod holders, wiring 12V electronics, building waterproof battery boxes, mounting transducers. All of this carries real risk, including but not limited to:

  • Permanent damage to your kayak or accessories.
  • Electrical short, fire, or battery damage (especially with LiFePO4 and lithium chemistries).
  • Injury from power tools, sharp edges, or hot components.
  • Loss of buoyancy or capsizing if a hull modification is done incorrectly.
  • Drowning and other water-related hazards anytime you are on the water.

You — and only you — are responsible for:

  1. Reading manufacturer instructions for every product before installing it.
  2. Wearing a properly fitted PFD (life jacket) any time you are on the water. Our articles assume you do.
  3. Working within your skill level. If you're not sure you can do a step safely, hire a marine technician.
  4. Complying with local laws and waterway regulations (registration, lighting, electrical standards, fishing licenses, etc.).
  5. Inspecting your build before each trip.

YakRigged is not liable for damages, injuries, or losses resulting from your use of any technique, product, or recommendation on the Site. See Section 9 for the formal limitation.

YakRigged participates in the Amazon Associates Program and similar affiliate networks. Some links on the Site are affiliate links, meaning if you click and buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

This is also disclosed in our Privacy Policy and on each article that contains affiliate links via the Affiliate Disclosure component at the top. Editorial picks are made before the affiliate link is added.

4. Use of the content

The text, images, structured data, code samples, and other materials on the Site (the "Content") are © YakRigged unless explicitly credited otherwise.

You may, free of charge:

  • Read the Site for personal, non-commercial use.
  • Share an individual article URL with friends, on social media, or in a forum.
  • Quote a short excerpt (typically under ~150 words) with attribution and a link back to the original article.
  • Print an article for your own offline reference.

You may not, without prior written permission:

  • Republish, mirror, or syndicate full articles — including via "content aggregator" sites, scraping bots, or LLM-training corpora.
  • Sell or sublicense any Content.
  • Remove or alter attribution, affiliate disclosures, or copyright notices.
  • Frame the Site or any individual page inside another commercial product (other than normal previews like social-media unfurls).

Want to do something that doesn't fit the list? Email hello@yakrigged.com and ask. We're flexible for non-commercial, educational, or journalistic use.

LLM and AI training

We do not grant permission to use the Site's Content for training, fine-tuning, or grounding of commercial AI / LLM models. If you operate such a model and you have ingested the Site, please document removal upon request. Our /llms.txt file states our preferences in a machine-readable form.

5. Reader submissions

If you email us a photo, story, or rig description (e.g. in response to a "Send us your install" callout at the end of an article), you grant YakRigged a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to:

  • Publish your submission on the Site.
  • Feature it in the newsletter.
  • Share it on our social channels with attribution.

You confirm that:

  1. You own the submission, or have explicit permission from whoever does.
  2. The submission does not infringe anyone's rights or violate any law.
  3. You don't expect compensation for the feature (though we'll credit you by name or handle if you tell us how).

You can ask us to take down a previously published submission at any time — email hello@yakrigged.com.

6. Newsletter

When you subscribe to the YakRigged newsletter:

  • You'll get a weekly editorial email plus occasional product-launch or field-test notes.
  • You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of any email.
  • We don't sell, rent, or share your email address. See the Privacy Policy for the full data-handling details.

Subscribing does not create any other relationship — you're not a "member," there's no account, and we don't track which links you click on an individual basis.

Articles link to third-party products and websites (manufacturers, retailers, YouTube videos, forums). These third parties:

  • Have their own terms and privacy policies, which apply once you leave the Site.
  • May change, become unavailable, or alter their offering at any time.
  • Are not endorsed, controlled, or vetted by us beyond the editorial context in which we mention them.

We are not responsible for content, accuracy, availability, or commercial terms on linked sites.

8. Trademarks

"YakRigged" and the YakRigged wordmark / logo are trademarks of the site operator. Brand names mentioned in articles (e.g. Scotty, Plano, Blue Sea, Garmin, Pelican, RAM Mount) are the trademarks of their respective owners and are used here for descriptive, editorial purposes only. No endorsement by those brands of YakRigged is implied.

9. Disclaimer and limitation of liability

The Site and Content are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranty of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, YakRigged disclaims all warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, YakRigged, its authors, and its contributors are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages — including but not limited to property damage, personal injury, lost data, lost profits, or loss of use — arising out of or in connection with:

  • Your use of (or inability to use) the Site or its Content.
  • Reliance on any information, recommendation, or guide on the Site.
  • Any DIY install, modification, or build you perform based on the Content.
  • Any third-party product, service, or website linked from the Site.

Some jurisdictions don't allow exclusion of certain warranties or limitations of liability. To the extent those laws apply to you, the limitations apply only to the maximum extent permitted.

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless YakRigged, its authors, and its contributors from any claim, demand, loss, or damage (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of (a) your breach of these Terms or (b) your misuse of the Site or its Content — for example, republishing articles without permission or attributing harm to YakRigged that actually resulted from your own installation decisions.

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms occasionally. When we do, we'll update the last-updated date at the top. Material changes (anything that affects your rights or obligations) will be flagged in the newsletter at least once before they take effect. Continued use of the Site after a change constitutes acceptance of the new Terms.

12. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the site operator is established, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any disputes will be brought in the courts of that jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory consumer-protection rights you have under the laws of your country of residence.

13. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remainder stays in force. The unenforceable provision will be interpreted to come as close as legally possible to the original intent.

14. Contact

Questions, takedown requests, permission requests, or "section 9 is unreasonable and here's why" — email hello@yakrigged.com. We read everything.