Re: [Paddlewise] locking a kayak to a roof rack

|Anybody ever try a "Club"?  Those steering wheel locking devices?  Haven't
found one that has |enough bite to get around my Pintail's "ocean cockpit"
rim, but I'm guessing that there are |some out there that will.  And
certainly one that would take a good grab on my North Bay rim.  |It could
probably even be mounted over a neoprene cockpit cover --- and be that much
more |noticeable.  The obvious problem is getting one long enough to go to
the extreme length of |the cockpit --- not a problem in the North Bay and
certainly not in the Pintail --- although |the reverse may be true there.
Link one of those woven cables to the rack bar and the lock, |and you might
have a clear choice.


When I was first pondering how to lock our kayaks on the vehicles I thought
of the Club.  The Club's I looked at would not work since they could not
latch onto the cockpit rim or where not long enough to stay under the rim.

What I found and use is is a product called the "yak bar."  It is two
square bars that fit into each other with U flange openings at the end.
The bars have holes drilled through so you can attach a lock.  You could
easily make something similar as an earlier poster mentioned with round
steel bars or square.  Instead of the U flange which is going to require
some welding, just having the two pieces being to long to remove from
inside the cockpit would work.

We place the yak bar in the cockpit with the padlock's keyhold up.  This
makes it very difficult to reach the padlock's hasp.  Trying to hack saw in
this position would be very difficult and there is not enough metal exposed
for a bolt cutter.  We then use a KryptoNight lock that we bought at the
large hardware stores to go around the yak bar and the roof racks.  The
KryptoNight cables were designed to protect construction site equipment and
appear to very tough.  The bolt cutters in the store would not easily cut
the cable.  If at all.  The cable was to thick.

This was the best solution I could come up with.  Its not perfect but its
going to keep the teenagers on a weekend night from steeling the boats.  I
can only think of a few ways to defeat the system and that is going to
require some expensive tools.

Hope this helps....
Dan McCarty


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