Bought a plastic Valley Aquanaut recently. Boat did not come with any leashes or tie downs for the hatches, though it does have places where they could be attached (their is a loop on the outside of the larger hatches).
I have seen leashes for hatches before. My girlfriend’s Chatham 16 has nice ones of a thin black line.
I stopped at my local kayak shop and also at West marine, and neither had this thin line, nor ready made hatch leashes.
Anyone know of where this cord can be gotten? Or of companies/manufacturers that make the leashes for this pre-made?
Paracord
– Last Updated: Nov-05-09 6:59 PM EST –
I bought a 1000' roll of paracord some time back for things like this. Have used it to tether neo hatch covers and many other things kayaking. It's too thin to use for perimeter deck rigging, though I've used it for that in a pinch until I could obtain something a little thicker.
I have seen the hard plastic covers tethered using cord that was more substantial, similar to what is used for deck rigging and rudder deploying cord. I guess whatever size the hole is for the tether will dictate the range of useable cords available to you.
I bought the paracord army surplus from Sportsmansguide.com. I suppose any similar brick and mortar store would have it available if you need it in a hurry.
REI
or any climbing store should have something smaller than paracord if you’re looking for something that approximates what Valley uses. Otherwise Alder Creek in Portland can probably hook you up, or at least point you in the right direction.
suggestion …
try a well stocked store like one that caters to the sail boat crowd… there’s a marine store in my area that has all the raw materials to do what you need to do…so the parts are out there , you just need to find out where they are in your area. look online too.
leash for hatch covers
I’ve heard this before as the composite Valleys come with them and the RMs don’t. Can’t be that much more to include them on all the boats…
Used to be
that almost none of the British kayaks came with tethers on their hatch covers. I know lots of people who have lost them on the highway, and even more who have lost them while out in the ocean.
Tethers are good. I was so happy to see them on my Anas Acuta when I bought it.
It doesn’t take anything special…
– Last Updated: Nov-06-09 7:11 AM EST –
...and any synthetic cord (nylon, polyester) will do. There's no point in stressing over it, just buy something at a hardware or department store, or home center. On my own boats with Valley covers, I make bungee loops that fit in the groove in the cover, then attach those to the deck rigging with short leashes. In addition to providing an attachment point for the leashes, the bungee improves the sealing of the hatch covers. However, a simple cord leash will work just fine.
Or EMS
All of our tether lines are thin climbing line from EMS, REI would work well. Static line, and it’s pretty too. We have found small plastic clips to hook them thru rigging on line, don’t know where now but you can poke around and find them.
once installed exercise care
I always tether hatches, VCP or others, via integral loops/tabs either outside rim or underneath. I am more careful now not to remove the hatch cover by yanking on the leash as I ripped out a loop on VCP big oval. Then I just rotated it 180 degrees to use one on other end. Now I tug on hatch cover and not leash.
I also sand a radius on lower hatch edge circumference so that it settles into place easier without affecting its seal.