> It seems that quite a lot of PaddleWisers have experienced problems with > boats on top of their cars. Although they describe minor problems, that only > required pulling over and fixing something, try for a moment to imagine the > worst-case scenario: A kayak that gets blown off your roof on the highway, > sails across to the other side and hits the driver off a loaded schoolbus... I recollect a survey done some years ago, possibly by an insurance organization, that said that nearly 80% of all damage done to boats is done on land, not water. Mostly collisions involving trailers but also cartopped boats going astray. Suppose that you rear-end someone. Stop fast enough and your kayak's inertia will rip the racks off forward and spear into the car you just hit.... That could be very bad. Also, you've probably damaged the mounting area of the racks as well. The rear tiedown, at the very least, should be there to help prevent this. It could help restrain the boat and racks... I know of one person who ties another rear rope to the racks to be sure of this. For those reasons, my tiedown ropes are not minimal. I use 6 mm Prusik line which tests well over 2000 lbs. Joe P. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Apr 18 2001 - 07:53:18 PDT
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