Mike Daly suggests fixing the D rings by first stitching them to a square of hypalon or cordura which is then glued to the hull - this should certainly work fine. I couldn't obtain either of those materials so made do with a scrap piece of untreated artists' canvas (you can buy a small piece of it in any craft or artist supply store). I mounted my D rings on 8 inch lengths of webbing, salvaged from an abandoned back-pack. I had these stitched onto a piece of canvas about 8 inches by 10, using about 4 inches of the webbing to anchor it securely, leaving the D ring dangling on the other 4 inches of the webbing. Opposite them I stitched another two, much longer, pieces of webbing, each with a male and female strip of Velcro towards the free end. Next the canvas square is glued to the hull (the material soaked up lots of heavy-duty rubber cement and seems very firmly anchored); the gallon container of ballast sits between the straps, each velcro'd strap is brought over the container and through its opposing D ring (the 4 inches of webbing makes it easy to grab this, even when reaching inside a day hatch) then pulled tight, folded back on itself and the Velcro pieces "mated". Cost was very modest and it works just fine - I can install or remove the ballast in seconds. As for PeterO's question regarding ballast affecting a boat's handling in following seas, at the risk of straying way out of my area of expertise, I'd guess that although 20 lbs properly placed behind the paddler can and will affect side-to-side trim, its effect on fore-and-aft trim would be at best a modest reduction in the bow's tendency to pearl. Keith Rodgers *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:30 PDT