Hey there folks, first time poster.
My wife and I have taken up paddling in the Chesapeake, and around the Delmarva peninsula. We recently bought her a boat, and have started stacking our boats on the rack, as opposed to just mine in a j cradle. Today, while on a backroad, the tail of the Rachet strap I was using to ‘secure’ the bow of the boat came loose while driving and flapped in the wind. As I slowed to a stop, approx 2 mph, I pulled it under the drivers side tire of my car. Bent my kayak in half and broke my windshield. Live and learn, things could’ve been much worse. Cussed on the side of the road for a bit, readjusted straps, and limped the mangled thing home.
When I got home I popped the boat back into shape, and was happy to see that despite a heavy crease in the side, I think I can at least paddle it for the rest of the summer. Do you guys have any advice about this kind of massive stress on a plastic kayak? I am thinking of using a heat gun to try to fine tune the shape, but I would assume that crease is going to be a serious weak point. Should I install a rail or some such fix to brace that side, or just live with it?
That’s why you don’t use ratchet straps on a kayak! You want cam straps. BTW I like your aero bars! I have a feeling that boat is trashed but maybe not.
Try the hot water in hull, but too bad. The crease looks pretty sharp in one spot…
To reduce the risk of this happening again, use the hood bumpers to tie off the bow lines. That way your line is not long enough to get caught in a wheel well if it goes loose. You can pay someone like Thule for them (https://www.amazon.com/Thule-Hood-Loop-Strap-529/dp/B004MZXI0I) or just create a loop yourself from rope. You can just leave them under the hood during paddling season, entertainment too because it confuses the heck out of the guys who do car maintenance.
FYI, similar started trying to happen to my husband and I on the way home one night, a block from home when we saw a flapping strap on one side. We were using the prescribed straps and hooks that came with the rack set, maybe the second time. There was no chance for another try - went to hood loops the next paddle.
I would live with it. Poly kayaks can be patched but it is a bit tricky. I actually know whitewater kayakers who have deliberately driven cars over the rear deck of their kayaks to flatten them.
Any line attached to the stem of a boat that goes under a wheel is going to cause severe damage. Doesn’t matter if it is a cam strap, ratchet strap, or rope. I have seen the ends of boats completely sheared off this way.
Thanks to the well wishers, I was lucky, had I rolled another foot forward or so I probably would’ve crushed the area where the roof meets the windshield and had some real problems with fixing my car. As it stands I’m in it for a windshield and I consider that getting off pretty light.
Celia, thanks, i’ll order the hood bumpers, looks like the way to go.
Pblanc, yep I don’t think it was the strap’s fault, the way to avoid this debacle is to not allow a line long enough on the car to prevent travel under the front wheel. As I understand it, the issue with rachet straps is that you can crank
Them down on your boat so hard you can deform it just trying to secure it… I am busy finding more inventive and dangerous ways of deforming my boat.
Luckily for me I acquired the kayak for a reasonable price last spring on Craigslist and didn’t just taco a brand new toy. I’ve popped it back into shape, it sprung back on its own pretty well. I’ll try hot water and a broomstick massage on the hull this evening and see if I can work the hard crease out a bit.
You might want to switch to using rope for your front and rear tie-downs. I have caught flack for saying this before, but proper knots simply don’t come undone, while the usual method of attaching straps (a metal hook on end of the strap) is just waiting for a little slack to form so it can drop right off. Further, if your attachment method somehow allows a rope to slip loose (if so, find a way so it can’t), the fact that a proper knot stays tied means the rope will still be too short to get under a tire (still, in ~ 55 years I’ve never seen a properly tied rope come loose at all). Using under-hood loops as anchor points is probably the safest bet on most modern cars, as that will keep your tie-downs short and in sight.
Agree about those metal hooks. Replaced the hooks that came with my Thule Quick Draw tie-downs with climbing carabiners. Only way one can come off is if I release it.
Just a couple of comments on the hood thing etc. First, what I actually use on my current car (Rav4) is a rope loop tied around a part of the frame near the outside edge of the hood. One each side, either 2 boats or maybe a triangulated line if one boat. One car had velcro strap loops around the frame a bit of the frame too. Worked fine and used materials we had around.
And I agree with Guideboatguy. Have never used other than ropes for the bow lines. The only place I use straps for what could be called tie down is if carrying the canoe. I line it up so that at least one thwart is over a cross bar of the rack, and use a strap to secure the thwart to that. Then I can run the remaining part of the strap out to the end of the boat, if I grabbed a long red strap, and leave some hanging down to serve as a flag.
I saw a canoe going north on 95 in Maine some years ago angled up from a truck bed. The frame was fully intact, had been well secured. But the skin of the canoe had been half ripped off by the wind and was flying behind the upward part of the boat. I figure good chance rest of it let loose at some point and was being ducked by cars behind it. So I lash the canoe extra underneath to provide double insurance against the front end grabbing wind and tipping up.
I switched from tying ropes to the front tow hooks on my truck to web loops from under the hood with ropes too short to reach the ground. I never had a rope come loose, but having seen pictures like the OP’s, I do not want to take the chance.
Bow and stern tie down ropes from Thule come with open hooks. I always bend that open hook down around a steel carabiner this way if the rope loosens a little it cant fall off what ever you have it hooked too. An open hook will fall off if it becomes loose. Not sure thats what happened to you but still a good idea.
Leaving boat in the sun can often help it return to its original, molded shape. Also, carefully applying heat to depressed hull area can help it reform (sometimes using boiling water poured through a layer of towels laid over the deformed area). RE: tie-down, consider using hood loops installed on each inside edge of hood for tying down loads (I’ve had mine on my rig for nearly 15 years, no failures yet). I urge you to check the Paddling.com archive of articles for helpful information, including the following: https://paddling.com/learn/kayak-repair/ - https://paddling.com/learn/quick-fix-repairs-for-rotomolded-kayaks/ - https://paddling.com/learn/diy-handy-tie-down-loops/. Good luck and safe paddling.
Just a couple of comments on the hood thing etc. First, what I actually use on my current car (Rav4) is a rope loop tied around a part of the frame near the outside edge of the hood. One each side, either 2 boats or maybe a triangulated line if one boat. One car had velcro strap loops around the frame a bit of the frame too. Worked fine and used materials we had around.
And I agree with Guideboatguy. Have never used other than ropes for the bow lines. The only place I use straps for what could be called tie down is if carrying the canoe. I line it up so that at least one thwart is over a cross bar of the rack, and use a strap to secure the thwart to that. Then I can run the remaining part of the strap out to the end of the boat, if I grabbed a long red strap, and leave some hanging down to serve as a flag.
I saw a canoe going north on 95 in Maine some years ago angled up from a truck bed. The frame was fully intact, had been well secured. But the skin of the canoe had been half ripped off by the wind and was flying behind the upward part of the boat. I figure good chance rest of it let loose at some point and was being ducked by cars behind it. So I lash the canoe extra underneath to provide double insurance against the front end grabbing wind and tipping up.
I had this same experience with my 17 foot Wenonah canoe on the roof of my car. We were using hooks to grab something solid under the car, with ropes to the canoe. A rope went under a front tire. Fortunately, the kevlar body of the canoe was not cracked. The aluminum gunwale was bent but I was able to straighten it so you would never know. There was also damage to the car - the headlight and one plastic lower panel were knocked out of alignment - but my local garage was able to fix it pretty easily.
My daughter had the under-the-hood loops on her car, as Celia recommended above, and I decided that was the way to go. So I got some 1" nylon webbing, made it into a short loop (about 4" long), and punched a hole at the back end. Then I removed a bolt on each side of the engine compartment (on the lip where the hood closes), put the bolt through the hole in the loop, and tightened it back up. The loops stay under the hood when not in use, and stick up through the gap at the edge of the hood when you need them.
For the rear of the car, there were no similar bolts to attach the loops to, so I made longer loops that wrap around the mounting point of the support strut for the rear hatch of my station wagon. Like the front, they hang out through the gap when you need them, but I remove them when not in use so they don’t fall off and get lost.
So, no more ropes going to hooks under the car! Having damaged a boat (and car) once this way, I have no desire to repeat the experience!
I would contact the manufacturer or a good local shop and get their opinion before trying anything, You might make it worse. Those loops come already made, I have a set from Thule I use for a Swift canoe and Jeep GC. They are removable.
