Yes, but I’d bet two-months wages …
– Last Updated: May-28-14 10:06 PM EST –
... that any reasonably competent person could have looked at his rope attachment and seen that it was deficient. I've never, ever, had a rope come un-attached. I've never even had one get loose, nor has anyone I know who knows how to tie knots. I've seen plenty of Bozos tie improvised "knots" that either failed or looked like they might, and I've seen these same people expect a rope to accomplish something when aligned in a completely inappropriate orientation to make it happen, but I've never even heard of a rope coming un-done if tied by a competent person. Your friend did something wrong - end of story.
It might be fun to make a list
– Last Updated: May-28-14 11:37 PM EST –
All this in just over a week:
1. Foam blocks are more secure than racks, and there's no advantage to a speedy rooftop system. Those who use racks are idiots.
2. A paper-thin layer of gel coat, in spite of the fact that it has no flexural strength to speak of, somehow protects the main hull from impact-related damage when it cracks, and this is due to energy absorption. The fact that so much energy is absorbed in the process of cracking a material which has no inherent resistance to cracking in the first place is one of the true unexplained miracles of science.
3. Synthetic motor oil degrades significantly after only one-day's use, but adding an ounce of fresh oil each day restores the existing oil. Now, this is like Jesus feeding thousands with a single loaf of bread when you consider the volume difference between the fresh oil and the existing oil. Oh yeah, the important part: This happens because broken ends of the long-chain molecules are re-attached, with the source of the new fragments being the undamaged molecules in the one-ounce of fresh oil (never mind the fact that any reputable source you can find says that synthetic oil is incredibly stable and hardly degrades at all over long periods of time, never mind the fact that there's no energy input and no supporting conditions to attach the new fragments to the damage molecules, never mind the fact that there's no energy input or supporting conditions to remove the proper fragments from the molecules of new oil, never mind the fact that removing the "proper" fragments from the molecules of new oil would be miraculous in itself outside a special facility, and most of all, never mind the "Jesus factor").
4. Air flow up the windshield will be less disrupted if you block off the interior of your canoe by installing a flat plate across the gunwales. All you need to do is put a bunch of sheet-metal screws into the hull - no big deal - they'll be easy to remove when it's time to use the boat (about as "fast" as securing a boat with foam blocks, would be my guess). It's more efficient for that air to detour around the whole boat than it is for it to follow the path that's pretty similar that which it would take if the boat were not even there (through the open interior).
5. YouTube and/or the National Film Board of Canada are sources of spyware. It's a new type of spyware that instead of being secretive, provides plenty of warning ahead of time that you should leave the site now, before it invades your computer. The fact that others have not seen this warning doesn't make it an isolated incident having some other explanation.
6. There's no reason to install air bags in a canoe when instead you can cut foam blocks to fit the profile of the hull and glue them in place. After all, what advantage do air bags have besides requiring much less labor to prepare and install, being removable, and being transferable from boat to boat? Who WOULDN'T opt to use foam instead? Best of all, "procedures are available" that will make the foam waterproof, solving that nagging waterlogging issue, so what more incentive does a person need?
7. (There must be more, even though all this started such a short time ago. My memory must be failing.)
Another issue with foam blocks
– Last Updated: May-29-14 12:57 PM EST –
I've looked at a lot of cars carrying boats via foam blocks. Many of them had deep indentations in the roof beneath the foam blocks. Most roofs nowadays have very few locations that won't cave-in under very slight downward pressure. The strongest car roof I ever saw was the one on my 1971 Travelall, but even that roof couldn't support a heavy load applied to a small contact area halfway between the internal roof-support members. On that car, the roof would oilcan a little bit at those weakest locations when I walked on it. On a modern car, the same thing happens if you push down lightly with your fingers. The sheet metal of modern cars can be cut with a pair of household scissors without too much effort - that's how thin it is. Thus, even a foam block that straddles a reinforcing crossmember will sometimes end up buckling the roof on each side of the crossmember. Does such buckling constitute damage? Probably not in the short term, but it's not something I'd want to do over and over. But most of us don't need to worry about buckling the roof's sheet metal over and over again. We've found an easier and better way.
By the way, in another thread, datakoll said something that, if I correctly deciphered my way through the terrible grammar, seemed to indicate that he drives a very old Volvo. Those cars had very strong roofs, nothing like what you see on today's cars. If someone put a gun to my head and said I MUST car-top a boat using foam blocks, I'd want to choose a car like that to do it with, both on account of the rugged roof, and the availability of good tie-down points (or ease of installation of same).
Oh, yeah, it's worth mentioning that a lot of people can only get their boats onto the roof by sliding it up there. With a rack, perhaps with proper modification, that's easy. With foam blocks, there's usually no practical way to slide a boat onto the roof (except with a beater car where the owner doesn't mind putting new gouges in the paint with each and every load/unload). Another issue is high wind. I can slide a big boat onto a rack and immediately loop a temporary tie-down over it while I hang on to keep the wind from blowing it off. I can't imagine what a foam-block user would do when solo-loading something like a big canoe onto the roof on a really windy day. The list of advantages of a good rack over foam pads goes on and on.
Another incoherent remark.
No, you’d just need some big foam blocks
and a bunch of line.
Reason I gave up motorcycling in '76 was that they don’t carry canoes.
Similar reasoning here
– Last Updated: May-29-14 5:41 PM EST –
I had a motorcycle for a while, and during that time it was fun and even useful for basic transportation. However, exploring outdoor places with the bike was awful because it could only be parked on firm, level ground, and of course, it couldn't carry much. As soon as I had less time to ride just for the fun of it (at least, not without taking away time from outdoor hobbies which require a car), it was time to sell the thing. Failure of solid-state ignition-control unit made the decision to sell become pretty easy - it would have cost several hundred $ to fix, (but I got a fair price because I was lucky enough to sell it to an electronics wizard who knew how to build such components from scratch - he had the thing running again in no time, without spending a dime).
that’s why I sold my 2-seater
Decisions, decisions…
bit pricey but pretty cool
I like how compact that trailer is. Very nice.
Also like the photo of the trailer being towed by that MG (replica).
$$$???
I have quite a bit less than 2K in the entire fleet, I can stick all 4 in the bed of a F250 and it doesnt bother me a bit.
Start dropping 2500-3K on a kayak and a 900 dollar trailer is just a good investment. Heck, this kayaking bug catches hold, I might buy a trailer hitch (saftey chrome) and one of those myself.
