Re: [Paddlewise] Bow and Stern tie downs

I have seen a Nordkapp going down the freeway floating about 6 inches above
the rack with bungee cords with metal hooks the only thing holding it from
flying higher. When I told the driver about it later he said that's how he
always does it and he has never had a problem. Should I argue with his
success?
For several years I tied whitewater kayaks to my roof with rubber straps and
3/16" nylon solid braid end lines. Nearly twenty years ago I strapped the
very first Mariner kayak we ever made (before it was even totally completed)
on top of the Early Winters van to be used as a prop in a photo shoot for
their catalog. I used the same set-up I had always used without incident for
whitewater kayaks. I also locked it to the rear rack with a bike cable for
security against theft.
As the story was related to me the front line was vibrating against a slight
bend in the sheet metal on the front hood. The line frayed enough that when
doing 60 mph into 50 mph headwinds in Northern CA the bowline snapped. The
kayak bounced up and down a few times until the front bungee let go. As it
lifted off the bike cable yanked the rear rack off the roof and the kayak
and rear rack flipped over and crashed into the U-Haul trailer carrying the
photo samples and then fell to the pavement and was being dragged by the
stern line. Before the driver could get stopped the stern line broke and the
kayak tumbled down the highway and the Semi following them was just barely
able to miss running over it. The kayak suffered a good crack across one
seam but is still functional today but I learned a valuable lesson.

Set up your carrying system so that no single failure of any component will
cause you a problem!

See the beginning of the paddling manual on our website
http://www.marinerkayaks.com  for our recommendations regarding transporting
a kayak.

Lately I have watched on two separate occasions as paddlers tying down their
kayaks with the fixed webbing straps on Yakima TLC cradles had the strap
break at the buckle as they cinched it down. I think the problem is the
straps got sun degraded from always being on the rack day in and day out.
The straps looked okay (aside from the break). We had always though this was
kind of a stupid system (leaving the straps on to buzz in the wind and sun
degrade) and sold our customers separate straps that could fasten around the
bar rather than fasten to the little pins of the TLC cradles.
At least Yakima's policy of selling the components separately meant our
customers weren't also having to pay for the useless original straps. I
shudder to think what would have happened had these straps not quite failed
when being cinched down and the driver rear ended another vehicle without
bow and stern lines.

When viewed from the side the bow and stern lines should form a trapezoid or
rectangle rather than a parallelogram. The problem with a parallelogram (or
a single line that is not vertical) is that if the kayak (or roof rack-as in
the most recent discussion) shifts forward or back the line(s) can go slack.
You want one line to tighten up if the kayak (or rack and kayak) moves in
any direction.
Lots more info on this in the Paddling Manual.
Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com


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