RE: [Paddlewise] cars and boats

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Culpeper [mailto:culpeper_at_geocities.com]
> 
> Paint job?  Paddlers with vehicles with paint jobs?  What a 
> concept!  After
> giving up on suction cup racks I never bothered with car roof 
> racks for
> years until I moved on from canoes into kayaks.  I figured 
> the only reason
> you need racks at all is to protect the boat.
> 
> I don't know if I'd trust any paddler whose vehicle had a 
> paint job worth
> protecting.
> 
  <vbg>  I'm with Rich on this one.  When my last car finally turned wheels
up and headed off to the great junkyard in the sky I finally admitted to
myself that what I had was an addiction and that rather than try to fight it
that I might as well just give in and live with it as best I could.  So I
went shopping - for a brand new Boat Support Vehicle.  I needed something
that could shuttle a gang of whitewater boaters over dirt "roads",  could
carry four (or more with creative rope work) whitewater boats or a couple of
sea kayaks, storage room for wet gear and camping stuff, real honest to
goodness rain gutters for a solid rack mounting area, and decent gas mileage
because I'd rather buy paddling gear than pay for gas.
  I found just the right Boat Support Vehicle for my purposes and set out
training it immediately.  This vehicle wasn't going to live the life of
those pampered suburban cars that are washed and waxed every summer weekend
and have silly rules like "no eating food in the car".  This vehicle learned
right away that its lot in life was that of a working vehicle - kind of like
the difference between a sled dog's life compared to that of your normal
pampered pet.  Its burden was a rack - ever and always.  Sometimes loaded,
sometimes not, and even sometimes overloaded.  Mud, dirt, dust, snow; all
would coat its tough red hide and only be washed by the occasional rain
(admittedly much more than occasional here in Juneau<g>).  Its interior
would suffer the onslaught of wet, grimy wetsuits and drysuits, the
floormats covered in rocks, dirt, and sometimes ice.  Its harness would be
the bow and stern tie downs - they chafed at first, but like anything else
they soon became un-noticed and almost comfortable.  Its mission was to
carry the boats so that its paddler(s) could get to and from the put-ins.
Sure, it also had to perform such mundane tasks as running to the lumberyard
or ferrying the paddler to and from work, but its focus was to be carrying
those boats and gear.
  It's living in semi-retirement now - still carrying boats and nowadays
even towing one, but there are only about 45 miles worth of road to drive on
up here, so it doesn't really get to stretch its legs and settle into the
old mile eating lope, but even the short journeys from the house to the
water are performed with solid dependability.  It does however sometimes
balk at the idea of backing too deep into salt water to retrieve its skiff.
(rust is bad!)

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