Carry Handles for Surf Ski?

Just received a plethora of wellnuts for rigging up some decklines for drinking bladder usage on my Mark 1 ski. Got to thinking…although the boat is light at 28-30 lbs., it’s awkward to carry; hard to grip the gunwales, particularly when wet. Has anyone ever used wellnuts to affix webbing side carry straps? Before I go drilling more holes, curious about their strength. I’d have to mount them from above, since the gunwale area is sealed.

I wouldn’t
I trust the well nuts to hold my water (in front of my footwells) and PFD (behind), but I wouldn’t want to put a whole lot of stress on them repetitively. The deck isn’t massively strong, and I think you might eventually simply rip them out.



I’ve had pretty good luck carrying the boat on my shoulder, using the footstrap as something to grab onto in front (but not to use as the carrying point if the boat is right side up- does that make sense?). You can sort of get your paddle in the right place and carry everything at once without much difficult.



Now, how the heck you run that way (see “the madman of the east end” for details) is entirely beyond me.



af

Thanks…
don’t want anything ripping out. Well, I’m working up to the footstrap. Right now, I’m still in the ‘Mr. Quivers’ stage, but managing not to swim on flat water. Still cannot put power down with any degree of confidence; in comparison, my QCC feels like a raft. Installing the deck bungees etc. is my own wishful thinking that I’ll be able to spend great periods of time on this. Kind of like buying a pair of pants with a waist size too small that you vow you’ll be able to fit into…

I made a sling for my 18’
seakayak using webbing , loops on both ends so they make a loop that carries the boat when the strap is on my shoulder , nothing to compromose the boat . M

don’t go there
with those well nuts. I did however use them in the cockpit area (which I believe is made of fiberglass, not carbon) for thigh straps. the thigh straps gave me a sense of balance when I first got the ski, and ultimately gave me a way to roll the surfski. It took a couple of tries with big ones and some exta marine cement, but it held. I used the front screw holes provided by Fenn for the footstaps and the well nuts in the back. I usually haul the boat out of the water with the footstrap and throw it over my shoulder in one motion or as smoothly as possible, given the situation. When running out of the ocean, its like grab the footstraps and bolt. sometimes it gets ugly.

see you next weekend at Sebago. . . .

Oh yeah
I forgot to mention that the double surfski is going to have the handles put in by fenn so they will build up the nose and stern to support the handles.