My Sea Streak Obsession

[Paul9591]

I have a bit of an obsession for a very common UK built vintage reel (common in the UK at least; also sold in the US courtesy of Gladding, under the 'South Bend' name), Namely KP Morritt's Intrepid Sea Streak Multiplier/Baitcaster.

This reel was quite innovative at the time (around 1966) and was marketed as a 'Beach casting reel'

It had a rotary switch with four settings; AR with clicker, silent Forward and reverse, silent with AR (quiet clicker) and a forward / reverse ratchet they called 'Tru-Play'which allowed the angler to control the fish runs by hand, but with a click drag feature. This switch would soon change to a much more finger friendly design.

It also had a freespool switch, and a unique 'Thumatic' fanned spool with centifugal brakes (I am writing this without the handbook, so my terminology may be a bit out here, my apologies).

Spool removal was very quick; unscrew one single captive screw and twist the end cap off.

Down sides are (the colour?) weight, a slow retrieve ratio and a tendency to sound like a thousand screaming banshees when casting, hence their nickname 'Sea Scream' or Sea Screach'
They also have the strange (incredibly annoying) ability to absorb grease and grime into the red fiberglass filled nylon end plates, which is almost impossible to remove.

Another unpleasant tendency, was (is) for the chrome plated cages to bubble with corrosion if not washed properly after use.

The earliest have what I call the 'cloverleaf' rotary switch and a satin chrome finish. These came in cool display boxes, as did a few with bright chrome and the new switch.

Subtle design changes are found thoughout their time span (approx 1966-79), notably the change to bright chrome and loss of the Morritt name moulding on the R/H panel, also the box design changed at least twice, until Gladding got more of a foothold over the company from the mid 70's, and cut costs, with a plain white box with a blue and yellow band around the base, first wavy then straight.

When they are found in great condition, I think they look very cool, though most look horrendous, having probably been dumped in a box in the garage unwashed since their last outing over 50 years ago.

In a last ditch attempt to save the company in 1979, a carbon version was released, with a presentation box, but these are hard to find having been made for only around a year.

For beach or boat, they still get the job done.

For better or worse, here are mine:

[Paul9591]

Carbon Sea Streak and the Internals of the earlier red version (getting ready for cleaning and re-assembly).

[Mjg378]

Nice!

[Keta]

Interesting.

[Paul9591]

Interesting.

I'm guessing this reel model is not overly common in the USA, because some of the US ebay prices for these (South Bend badged) are in the hundreds of dollars, but even with the currrency exchange difference and import charges, a nice boxed UK example would be cheaper to buy....?

All that said, even though I feel they deserve a bit more praise than they get, this is not really a high quality or rare collectable reel; solid and reliable yes, but as you say, they are interesting; an important part of British fishing reel history.

I think it's fair to say that we UK anglers of a certain age range, have a bit of a love hate relationship with Morritt's Intrepids.