Stephen Bird wrote: > > >Plus, I transport my kayaks, both hardshell and SOF, deck down. If I'm > >going to deform anything, I'd much rather it be the deck. > > Good point, Tom. I have a psychological adversion to deck down because I'm > worried about losing hatch/cockpit covers (ie, they will just fall off). :) > -- > cheers, Stephen If the covers can fall off they can BLOW off! If your covers can handle a 6' breaking wave they can easily handle the winds loads of driving. If the boat is deck down it doesn't really need a cockpit cover so that is one less thing to lose. When I build a boat I make a cradle to match. The curves are made to fit the deck exactly with about 1" closed cell foam padding on saddles that are at least 4" wide. I have never had any hull distortion problems. For maximum strength I usually make the saddles fit at the location of the bulkheads in the boat. The custom cradle is then bolted to the car top carrier. Rigidly connecting the two rails together makes the carrier stronger too. michael *************************************************************************** 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 Sun Mar 14 2004 - 07:32:48 PST
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