Re: [Paddlewise] Clothing & Security

owner-paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net on 09/27/98 01:52:11 PM
Please respond to owner-paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
To: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
cc:
Subject: [Paddlewise] Clothing & Security

 |2. Kayaks are a very desirable commodity in Vancouver.  How does one secure
|a kayak to the roof of a pickup truck in the big smoke while sleeping
|soundly at night ?
|
|grant

Here is what I do after thinking and looking at locks and cables for a fairly
long time.

My local paddling store had a device called a yak bar.  Its a square metal tube
with flanges fit over the cockpit of the boat.  There are two pieces of tube
with one fitting in the other.  This allows the tube to be adjusted to the
length of your cockpit.  There are
holes in the tube so you can put a lock in place.  The yak bar is very similar
to The Club for cars.  A person cannot use the kayak until the yak bar is
removed.  I lock the yak bar
so that the key hole in the padlock is facing up.  This makes it much easier to
unlock but
more importantly it makes it all but impossible to attack the padlocks lock bar.

To keep the kayak on the truck I found a locking cable at Home Depot.  The cable
is made by kryptonite and was designed to lock up equipment on construction
sites.  Obviously, there are many tools at a work site to be used to cut a
cable and the company thought about the design.  The cable is at least 5/8 of
an inch think and coated with plastic.  One end of the cable locks into the
other end of the cable. The cable is thick enough so that the cable cutters at
the same store were not large enough to get a grip on the cable.  Given time
and a hack saw you could eventually cut through either the yak bar or the cable
but it is going to take a long time.....

I put the cable through the yak bar and then loop it under my roof racks.  On
my SO's jeep, I also wrap the cable through the roof rack for good measure.

I think this is about as secure as you can get.  I wish the yak bar was thicker
with a better grade of metal.  The weak link in this is the yak bar.  Cut
through this and you have the boat.  But its going to take some time to cut
through.  And if the thief is not thinking he will have to cut through two
bars.  I hope that the sight of the very think kryptoknite cable loops through
the roof rack would scare of most people.  Last year my boat was on the top of
my truck from May until August.

The cables sold by the rack makers and for bikes are just not think enough to
stop someone with a decent set of bolt cutters.

Hope this helps...
Dan McCarty




***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/
***************************************************************************