Our local university has some old plastic Necky touring kayaks in their rental fleet. They have deck bungees, but no static perimeter lines. The deck bungees run through what I’d describe as U bolts, so it would be difficult to impossible to run deck lines and bungee cord through the same fitting. Any suggestions on how to add perimeter lines? I’m not sure they’d be willing to drill new holes in the boats.
May be able to terminate the perim lines
at the bow/stern toggles/handles, and loosen up the bungie “u” fittings a bit to so they can be shared by both the bungies and the perims and then retighten them (if they’re screw n nuts, not rivets). Will probably need some new holes and fittings though to get the perim lines as you want/like them. Most outfitters and Duckworks.com have pieceparts for this work. Duckworks (and probably others) has a nice 2-way fitting that could be used for both bungie and perims and you can buy perimeter line and bungie in bulk from outfits like the ropeguy.com and others. Just thoughts. R
It would help…
…if you could post the exact model of boat involved or links to pictures of them, so we could see how the boat is currently rigged and what access you may have for adding fittings.
perhaps
Perhaps swap out the bungees for thinner bungee which could then allow you space to also run a line through the grommets.
The easy route is not to do the entire boat - just the section in front and behind the cockpit. Run through the current bungee holders and out to the front toggle loop.
Boats about 10 years old
I first took a paddling class from them in 2001, I think, and I don’t think the boats were new then. One is a Looksha IV the others are Zoars, I think. Not the newer Zoar Sports, these are about 16 feet long. Sorry, don’t have any access to pictures. But you’ve provided some good ideas already and I’ll pass them along. Keep 'em coming.
picture of one on a Looksha Sport
Here is a picture of one on a Looksha Sport, which is the shorter version of the Looksha IV.
http://singlespeed.org/temp/LookshaDeckLine.JPG
Looks like he just went between the eyelet closest to the cockpit and the eye used for the toggle. Lots of room on the toggle eye, but he likely may have had to squeeze to get it through he other eyelets. I think he also changed the bungee on the deck to a small diameter one.
I think the black line twisted around the deck line is bungee. Not sure the benefit of this.
I took this picture because I also was interested in installing a deck line on my Looksha Sport, and was interested in seeing how this person did it. I think I would have run the line through another set of eyelets (maybe the ones closest to the hatch) for added contact points.
you don’t have access to pictures
on the internet?! Just google what you’re looking for, hit images, cut and paste, and you’re good to go. Is it one of these?
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f288/photog1150gs/IMG_3593.jpg
Kinda like the one on the right
But I don’t think the deck fittings are recessed the way they appear in the picture. I’m going from memory.
Deck lines
Perimeter lines are more important than bungees. If you need to, ditch the bungies, replace with perimeter lines.
I agree
I agree with what you are saying – especially on the back deck when trying a re-entry, but really for both. Tricky to keep a grip to stabilize as a rescuer without perimeter lines in front. But they aren’t my boats. I think they will be making some changes, though.