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Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
Re: women loading boats
Posted By: Alex M In Response To: women loading boats (Pamela)
Date: Friday, 26 August 2005, at 2:46 a.m.
: going to replace the rollers with another set of saddles. A big
: disadvantage of the rollers is that you have to tie the boat to the
: crossbar instead of the saddle.This is rather and advantage - like Thomas mentioned, aging and resulting degradation of plastic may cause a big problem. I feel much more secure, tying roller straps around the bars, rather than attaching them to the slots of Yakima saddles. Car roofrack (i.e. legs) should be adequately attached to the roof. If it is not, flexible attachment of straps to saddles might not be enough to prevent a damage.
: For a woman, loading boats is often a challenge
There is nothing particlarly "manly" about loading a kayak. Use a blanket or foam pad for hatchback, use an extention bar (a.k.a. outrigger) for any car, use a low car like those Subaru, rather than SUV. Will be easier on wallet too, with todays gas prices.
Fore and aft tie-downs is a must. I always use them, and there is an easy way to do this on any car. Following somebody's advice from mail-list, I've drilled a hole in some metal above the radiator (under the hood), and put a short webbing loop on a screw, with a hole for screw in the webbing, made by heated nail. The loop is under the hood, when I don't need it. It takes seconds to put a cam-backle strap through this loop and bow U-bolt. (Make sure you don't drill a radiator, of course).
For a stern tie-down, I didn't have to invent anything, since my sedan has a sort of suitcase rack on the trunk (rubber strips and lateral rail) - it's an old car. But I'm sure there would be some suitable piece of metal to drill in the trunk, under the trunk carpet.
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