Stuff with bubble wrap
Or cover the openings with trashy-looking…plastic trash bags!
Keep painter lines on, too
I’ve stayed at motels with my/our kayak(s) on the roof or on the trailer. What I did follows along what others have posted:
- LassoLocks, wound around to take up slack and look complicated. Lock to the vehicle’s factory rails if it has them, not just to aftermarket fittings.
- Park either right outside of room’s window (when rooftopping) OR somewhere easily seen from same (when trailering). If possible, also visible from the motel lobby, under lights.
- Keep painter lines on. I use reflective line.
- Don’t leave the boats unattended for long periods. If going out for dinner, walking nearby, leave on one dim motel room light so that it looks like someone is inside.
- Car-camp when possible instead of moteling.
I don’t worry hugely about theft of sea kayaks when in the great interior west. Not many people are equipped to handle and transport long, heavy sea kayaks–and not many even know what they are, believe it or not. I still use the above precautions, though.
WW kayaks, OTOH, get stolen all the time. Lock AND hide them.
Security
– Last Updated: May-31-12 5:53 PM EST –
Any boat I'm traveling with has 2 painters tied to the vehicle, and 2 tie down straps securing the boat to the rack system. The rack system is locked to the vehicle.
In motel/hotel parking lot; I park in a well lit area, even if it is not close to my room. If there is a security camera nearby, even better.
I use a lightweight steel cable to lock the boat to the rack system, and another one to lock the boat to the rear bumper. After that, I don't worry about it too much. If someone manages to steal one; I'll be calling my insurance company; right after I call the police.
If I find my stolen boat on someone's vehicle somewhere; it'll take a wrecker to move that vehicle.
BOB
A BIG A$$ Stars and Bars on the
back window and an assortment of Second ammendment bumper stickers.
No lock required.
Put a security system decal
on a window. It might help deter.
Lock em to each other
If you have more than one boat it also helps to lock them to each other. If you can do it with a shorter cable it makes it harder to access (hopefully you have a sun roof which makes it easier for you).
I;ve done this
Left my kayaks on the roof while at a motel. I alweays ask for a room with a view of the parking lot but rarely get one.
So I often wake up during the night and check on my car, until I realized that unless I catch them in the act, the chances are that when I arrive in the am or during the night, I will either see my kayaks on theroof or gone!
No way to feel safe unless you haul them up the stairs and inside the room which is what I did one trip.
Jekyl Island is an old folks
destination. Not a high risk area.
Best Solution
– Last Updated: Jun-01-12 11:02 PM EST –
I tried the Lasso and found it awkward. Then I found the SPT lockable straps, and they're great. Not cheap, but good insurance. If your rack is locked to the roof and your kayak is locked to the rack with these, it's probably as good as it gets.
http://www.mountainsports.com/msmain.asp?Option=Detail&Detail=180044&Product=Sea+to+Summit+Lock+Strap+Set
They come in 8' and 13' lengths. The 8' handles a slim kayak, but you might need the 13' for a wider boat.
And yes, leave the bow and stern painters on. While they're easy to cut, obviously, they present the image of a more difficult to steal boat. More work = more deterrence.
Yes
If you don’t have the 3rd cable, there’s enough line in the Lasso locks to manage some kind of interwoven affair. Removing TWO kayaks in one fell swoop would be much harder to do than one at a time.
Easy warning system
I haven’t tried this, so caveat emptor:
Wind some fishing line around the boats, with the end attached to a hidden pair of trashed cooking pots perched on rocks. Fill the pots with jingle bells, rocks, and empty soda cans.
Secure your gear as well
With the increasing popularity of paddling, more people are aware of the value of cartopping gear. Someone loosened the knobs on my J-cradles when I was kayaking the Deerfield in NW Mass, but apparently were interrupted before they could get them off. Now I carry a couple of bike cables to lock the cradles to the roof rack.
I used to leave my straps and Quickdraws in position while paddling; now they go inside the car.
An alternative with straps is to feed the free end through the buckle and close the doors on the straps so the buckles are inside the car. The only way to remove the straps is to cut them, rendering them useless without the buckle.
I also make sure to cover any cartopping gear I’m storing inside the car, just like anything else of value.
no locks and not so great neighbors
The creeps around here are looking for something they can sell for drug money!
I’m in more danger of someone coming in through a window to get my 42 inch flat screen than in having that same person untie my kayak from the roof of my car.
Around Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, or Traverse City Mi and Columbus Ohio, I don’t worry about my kayak stored on the roof and on the plus I can always find my car when I come out of the stores. It would have to be a planned yaknapping so I don’t worry about it in town. It’s highly unlikely the average thief in Columbus is coming for my kayak.
I’ve wondered about what if I buy a second kayak but only take one out on the water. Leaving one on my car at the launch site - that worries me because folks at launch sites know what to do with an unwatched kayak. I have a locking cable, I will be looking for it if I end up with a second kayak.
I, too, use Lasso Locks
My strategy is:
- Use Lasso Locks, wind them around the boats, cradles, and racks, leave as little slack as possible.
- Park near a light source.
- Park where there’s a wide line of sight from various angles, not in a nook where few might see the car. Security through non-obscurity.
- Cover everything left in the car.
- Park next to fellow paddlers whose boats aren’t locked down.
We’re pretty much the only people in a club of hundreds that locks our boats. Of hundreds of people in an urban area, I don’t think anyone’s had a boat stolen right off their car, although plenty have had them stolen out of garages and back yards. (As others pointed out, I’m talking about sea kayaks, not WW boats).
Never have an issue…
Heck I stay at campgrounds and we leave the kayak just on the ground when we go for walks or what not. Big thing is to not leave paddles or life jackets available for easy use, that way at least the “joy ride” type of thieves will avoid.
I can’t imagine too many people want to steal a kayak. Especially a 12+ footer, as they are a bit hard to steal unless your parked in the woods with NO traffic what so ever. I agree to wrap your excess strap lengths around the kayaks, and maybe tie on top of the kayak where its very hard to get to. This will require (without cutting) too much time to get a kayak off the roof in a hurry. And, unless someone has planned a kayak theft, they won’t have their own straps, and probably won’t cut them.
Locked cables wrapped around the kayak/inside around the seat or something secure and around factory side rails or at least around LOCKED accessory bars. If your bars are not locked onto your roof or fixed to your roof, I don’t really know a good way to secure your kayak other than in front of a security camera, with good lighting, and take out insurance…
PICKUP
It’s a little harder to lock a kayak up in a pickup. I use a T bar bed extender, and haven’t figured out how to make a lasso lock work. So when I went over to the Orlando Disney area instead of taking my 14 foor sit in, I took my 12 foot sit on. That allowed me to run chain through the scupper holes and securely lock it to my truck bed. I also purchased a cable/hitch pin lock combo. That way I was able to lock my extender to the hitch and use the cable to wrap and go thru the scuppers also. I used big bolts and lock nuts on the adjustable heigth part of the extender, replacing the hitch pin, so no one take it apart. I parked in a well lit part of the parking lot as close to the front door that I could and backed into my space so the yak wasn’t that visible to someone casually walking/driving by. I’ve seen unlocked yaks on rooftop racks in various amusement park parking lots, and also at the Downtown Disney complex.