Re: [Paddlewise] Cockpit Covers

From: <rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 09:03:25 -0800
JCMARTIN43_at_aol.com wrote:

> Caution note: in very heavy or sustained rains, you can pick up enough
> rainwater in a cockpit to collapse your rack --- not to get back on that
> subject! --- and even your roof.  Only saw it happen once, but two large
> cockpit sea kayaks on top of (I think it was a) Toyota Corolla managed to
> buckle the roof columns.  With lesser amounts of water, you can develop
> hydraulic rams which, when the car stops quickly, can blow out your forward
> bulkhead --- or, in non-bulkheaded boats, the bow!

Amen, on the amount of water.  I once left on my roofrack a double
Klepper without its spray cover.  It was on the car overnight during a
torrential rainstorm.  When I went out the next morning, the car which
was on an inclined driveway alongside a friend's house was down on its
back springs as if I were carrying a load of concrete.  I tried climbing
up to pump water but it was taking too much time.  Luckily the guy we
were staying with was built like Burl Ives and just took the boat off
the roof, water and all, spilling a lot of the water out as he did.  No
damage to the car, rack or boat but I have heard of Klepper breaking
frame parts when a swamped one is hauled on to a large motor boat.

ralph diaz 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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Received on Tue Dec 01 1998 - 06:05:54 PST

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