: Was planning to use them for tie-down bungees and gunwale safety
: lines, with heavier-duty ss padeyes at the bow & stern.
: Hearing that the cable ties are easily bent is giving me pause.
: All would be installed by drilling oversized holes, filling them
: w/dookieschmutz and re-drilling the correct size for the bolts.
: Nick also suggests epoxying the washers and nuts to the
: underside of the deck so that the fittings can be removed when
: the time comes to revarnish and reinstalled afterwards. Today I
: came across a store with plastic Hobie fittings that thread into
: their rotomolded plastic hulls. The holes for these fittings
: would be pretty big, however- about seven eigths of an inch.
: Finding nuts and washers for them could be interesting as well.

: In a related question, as a sailor, I am used to cleats. The
: 4" nylon ones are light and strong enough to be useful
: without being too big to be placed at the bow & stern.
: Kayaks seem to simply not have cleats. Is there a reason for
: this?

Last question first, what do you want cleats for? I'm a sailor too, but these boats are way too light to leave in the water without anyone in them, just pull up on shore. Cleats also tend to catch on things when you're doing rescues, not a good idea, it's not a sailboat.

Most builders use small plastic eyes or nylon/poly webbing loops to secure perimeter lines/bungies. The eyes are pretty cheap, webbing loops even cheaper. Need to look at kayak supply places instead of places like West Marine for these. Generally West Marine and places like that are ok, with kayaks they havn't a clue.

Bill H.