Morning, have been considering getting a spare paddle and strapping to my Dirigo 120 deck. Have seen the commercial paddle holder such as this. Any idea if a 2 piece paddle could be held secure under bungees with the handle ends placed into pool noodles and the paddles under the deck bungees?
You could probably make something if you find a way to hollow out the center of the pool noodle so the paddle can slip in. But many kayaks (like the one in your picture) don’t have forward deck bungees to slip the pool noodles under, so you’ll also need to rig up a way to secure the pool noodles.
If there’s any chance of encountering rough water, I would stick with a well secured commercial paddle holder (“paddle britches”, “paddle scabbard”) as in the picture. Those paddle britches are secured very well. and will stay in place even if a wave crashes over the bow.
Amazon carries a cheap version of Northwater scabbards that would work better than noodles and inexpensive enough to just buy and not spend time fitting noodles and such.
Many people carry spare paddles just under the bungees on the kayak - not using something like the North Water Scabbards. If there is enough bungees on your boat, that could work. The scabbards add additional holding power which i useful against waves and the like (which hopefully you are not experiencing much in a Dirigo). The scabbard also provided protection for he ends of the spare paddles from grit and sand, which you wouldn’t get if you just out them under bungees but once again, hopefully you don;t have any water, dirty or clean, washing across the paddles when on the deck in a recreational boat).
With or without a scabbard like attachment, you may have issues of space. There may not be enough deck space to fit a 2 piece spare on either of your decks. The paddle may be too long for the deck.
I have the low priced Amazon “paddle scabbard”. It works well. It looks like a Chinese copy of one version of the North Water paddle britches, so take that into consideration if you prefer to buy the original.
Amazon sometimes offers me interesting products at no cost in exchange for a review, so I grabbed these when they were offered. I am reviewer “W” here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7GWYCCW
Here’s a photo. I didn’t want to disconnect my perimeter lines, so I just added the temporary white pieces of line to see how the paddle scabbard would attach.
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I used zip ties to attach mine to deck lines, didn’t want to remove them either. An added bonus is that you can tighten so the scubbards don’t walk up/down the decklines.
I was thinking the same thing with zip ties. Tucking the webbing under the deck line and then zip tying would make a neat looking setup. I used white line and a white zip tie in this photo to show what I mean. A black zip tie would hardly be noticeable.
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This is exactly how I did it.
For the last 25 years my rear deck bungees alone have worked just fine for securing a spare paddle. I do a lot of open water paddling, but not surf or whitewater.
Scubbards are great, but I have to say that in rough conditions I’d much rather have an assembled spare on the front deck. Greenland works well for that as it’s easy to pull out even when capsized. In some of the washing machine type of seas fumbling with two halfs is not something I would look forward to.
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What about carrying a single wood canoe paddle spare ?
I bought a four piece paddle used pipe wrap to protect everything and put it in a plastic bag and wiretied it. The paddle just makes it but it sits inside the rear hatch. If my paddle breaks I’d have to get to shore to access the spare paddle or have a friend pull up alongside. A broken paddle can still work like a single canoe paddle and a quality paddle is unlikely to break.
I have a couple of old wooden canoe paddles and have used the shorter one as spare tucked under the bungees. Good enough for flat water (or close to it).
I have always used the deck bungees and never lost a paddle, although they have moved around unexpectedly at times. On really calm water, I am happy with just a collapsible canoe paddle behind my seat.
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One easy way to make a paddle holder is to take 2 rings cut from 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 inch PVC pipe and drill 2 holes in each one at the 5:00 and the 7:00 positions. Run a short line thought those holes to make a tight loop. Then you run your deck rigging though the 2 loops so the rings set up like a set of “Micky Mouse ears” They stay in place on the deck rigging and because of the way they are drilled they don’t turn. Easy to slip the ends of a 2 piece paddle through them and secure the blades with the deck bungees.
Like spacesputnic, I keep a GP on the front deck. One of my boats doesn’t have a perimeter lifeline, so I simply take a short bungee cord and wrap it around the boat near the bow. Slip the GP under it and the regular deck cord, easy and secure!
I’ve got about 12 metres of pool vacuum hose. I made this prototype scabbard for my spare paddle today.
