When transporting your yak do you use bow and stern lines. I have seen people transport there yaks without the lines. Seems to me it would add a margin of safety to add the lines.
FishHawk
When using roof racks lashing the yak to the racks is good enough for some people. If I'm travelling a long distance or plan to exceed 40 MPH I like to use a bow & stern line as well.
The most important thing about using a bow & stern line to remember is to avoid a "negative" angle. By that I mean your bow or stern is mounted onj your roof in a manner that the bow or stern line is angled in to the where it meets the car vs. out.
I hope that makes sense. I will try to find a link to an on line articvel that explains it better.
Not only will the extra lines give added security the bow line ,in the case of larger SUV and canopied pickups, will let you see that your Yak is still attached!
Maybe I just worry more than others but every time a big gust of wind rattles the vehicle or I pass a big Semi and the road tubulence blast the works I feel compeled to look like mad in all the mirrors and windows (really distracted here) to see if I can spot a loose boat flying through the air. The addition of the bow line works as a tattle tail and you never have to give the boat on the roof another thought unless the line leaves your sight.
Its the little things that make life less stressful if they were all written down somewhere, wait a minute thats what the www is for!
I use them on the VW all the time because the spread of the bars is small, less than 30 inches, I think. I may not use them on the Jeep if I'm not getting on a highway and it's not too windy. I believe both Thule and Yakima tell you to use them so I would presume any implied warrantee would amount to zilch without them. There was a kayak launched here with Thule bars attached a few weeks ago on the interstate, gusts to 50 mph, no bow/stern lines, so it does happen. Nothing wrong with a little redundancy in anything concerned with kayaks.
...I ride a donorcycle and have a tank bag that stays in place with a set of strong magnets...the manufacturer includes a "liability strap" to make certain they won't be sued if the bag is lost at speed...If you fail to "properly" secure your boat, not only can it make an untimely exit, you will be liable for any unexpected side effects...also...
When I'm carrying anything on the roof of my truck I hang a tag from the rear view mirror to act as a constant reminder. I read a story about the Merlin Bicycle Company that had hosted a major magazine writer. They had spent the better part of the day touring the shop and riding their hearts out and were late getting their charge back to Logan...With six titanium racing bikes strapped to the roof of their van they roared into short term parking and heard a crunching sound...the roof had been inadvertantly cleared of all hardware by a low parking garage. Haste makes waste and a tag hangs from my mirror as a timely reminder when there's cargo upstairs.
I saw a picture once of a yak nearly broken in half on roof racks. The owner inadvertently drove over the tag end of his bow line which his helpful partner had left dangling from the bumper. It was slightly more tragic when you realized the guy had built this boat himself.
Local jaunts like trips to the Charles (which runs through my town) don't call for lines. But, like Roop, when I hit highway speeds, I always secure fore and aft as well as crosswise. I've got some nice factory straps (Yakima, I think) with jam cleats that give you a snug tie-down without a lot of knotwork.
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