On Fri, 12 Mar 1999 08:57:28 DANJW wrote: > If anyone >knows of a good yoke for a kayak, I would be interested. I don't have any personal experience with this but look at: http://www.knupac.com/ The downside is that like most gear, it ain't cheap. Mel --- There are three types of people, those who can count and those who can't. -----== Sent via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----- http://www.dejanews.com/ Easy access to 50,000+ discussion forums *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
Mel Grindol wrote: > On Fri, 12 Mar 1999 08:57:28 DANJW wrote: > > If anyone > >knows of a good yoke for a kayak, I would be interested. > > I don't have any personal experience with this but look at: > > http://www.knupac.com/ > > The downside is that like most gear, it ain't cheap. > I haven't tried it either, but I spoke with the designer/marketers at a recent outdoor show. They are enthusiastic about it, but it's not a great idea to me. It solves the wrong problem with canoes (that most folks never learned the right way to lift and portage a canoe). For kayaks, it comes with a yoke made of a rectangular hollow section of aluminum that has adjustable clamps on the ends. These clamp onto the coaming of your cockpit at the balance point. The bar then rests on top of the backpack that goes with the system. This is an external frame pack whose frame has a two U shaped brackets at the top to receive the yoke. Being an external frame pack, there is the problem of where to stow it in/on your kayak. They suggest lashing it to the deck. No thanks. It seems to me that if you're going to portage a lot, you have several solutions. If you have a large enough group and relatively easy portages, four people can carry a loaded kayak with relative ease - one each at bow and stern and one on either side of the cockpit. Eight folks can carry a loaded double (speaking from experience here). After looking at the knupac design, I think I would get a properly shaped canoe yoke and attach it to a pair of triangles of wood or aluminum. You want to attach the yoke to one vertex of the triangle, connect a clamp mechanism to another vertex (thence clamping it to the coaming of the cockpit) and then clamp the remaining vertex to the rear of the coaming at the centreline. Ascii art time: Plan view: ______________ / \ | | |======(__)======| <------- Canoe type yoke with notch for | \ / | neck - clamp to coaming at each end | \ / | | \ / <-|---------- Triangles seen on edge | \ / | | \ / | <-- coaming (not keyhole in this drawing) | \ / | | \/ | \______||______/ <-- attach at centre rear of coaming Elevation: Stern end -- Kayak inverted -- bow end _________________________________________________ | | <-- coaming --------------------------- \--------------|| attach here / \ || \ and here \ || \ || \ || [====] <--- yoke (Ok, so I ain't Jackie!) So you have triangles in both the vertical and horizontal planes and the yoke shouldn't wobble around. The reason for raising the kayak above the yoke a few inches is so you can see where you're going without having to tip the bow of the kayak up (and end up dragging the stern on the ground). If you fiddle with the way the thing goes together, you can make it collapsable so that it can be stuffed into a hatch. I may experiment with a couple of old hockey sticks (I'm Canadian after all), since they are a solid, light wood and see how it works. I've been planning something like this for a while, since there are lots of places I want to paddle that inevitably lead to portages. I don't think I'll butcher a real canoe yoke yet - they'd have to be cut down a lot to fit a kayak cockpit (canoe has, say, 33 inch beam). I hope this makes sense to someone! Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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