I don’t know if this is possible with your kayak: I have a Loon 16T kayak with seats mounted to rails. I always run one or even two cam straps through the rails, through the sliding doors of my minivan, and fasten the strap to the cam inside the vehicle. That kayak cannot leave my roof barring a catastrophic event to the vehicle.
I don’t know if there is a super secure tie down surface within your kayak.
There’s always a way to provide a totally secure anchor point near either end of a kayak. I posted this method ages ago and those fussing over the problem considered this un-doable because they had no abilities with rope. But it’s doable and it works.
Rig up a “lasso” that can be cinched tightly around the coaming. Cinch it up with two half hitches or a taught line hitch. Run the free end of the line out toward the end of your kayak and rig up a bridle that surrounds the hull. If you are okay with rope, you can improvise and the result will be fine. If you aren’t, you can work on your skills and then you’ll do fine. For a line that pulls away from the boat, as is usually true for bow tie-downs, all you need is a bridle hitch that cinches around the hull at your chosen anchor point. Then, the remaining free end goes to the appropriate anchor point on the front of your car. If you’ve done it right, the location of the bridle that surrounds the hull will be an anchor point which does not move.
For stern lines - actually I’m not a fan of stern lines because they don’t oppose bow lines (in other words, if the boat scooches forward a bit causing the bow lines to get looser, the stern lines will get looser too so they really aren’t helping as much as they should. I prefer that my rear tie-downs attach to the boat somewhere rearward of center, so that they slope back toward the rear anchor points on your car, pulling on the boat in the opposite direction as the bow lines. With this setup, whether the boat tries to scooch forward or back, one set of lines will always oppose the motion, and if your whole rack comes loose, the whole shebang will at least stay on the roof (even if it can shift around a bit). Also a pair of rear lines located somewhat rearward of the center of the boat “splay out” away from each other at a steeper angle than stern lines, so they do more to keep the boat centered from right to left in the event your rack comes loose from the roof. Anyway, for these rear tie-downs, they can be done the same way as described above for the front tie-downs. The only difference is that the bridle portion of the rigging is around a fatter part of the boat.
I haven’t carried kayaks in a long time but for front tie-downs I cheated and used the carry handle, but for the rear tie-downs I preferred the bridle setup described here for the extra security in the event of rack failure (though since I have a lot of faith in my roof rack, I skipped that step except for very long trips). I use this same principle for the arrangement of supplemental tie-downs with canoes. But with canoes, there’s no need for rigging up bridles, since thwarts and carry handles (mini thwarts) make good attachment points for rope.
Strap noise resonating inside of car?
Strap noise resonating inside of car?
My longest kayak is 17’ 4" and shortest canoe is 14’. Both my bow and stern lines oppose each other so the boat can’t move forward or back. I have climbing straps bolted under the hood, so the bow line goes back toward the car not forward toward the bumper. The stern lines go forward toward the bumper. It’s the same way a bottom board is stapled to a hive body. The lines would look like this \ / with the top being the ends of the boat and the bottom attached to the car. This would also work / \ but neither this / / or this \ \ as they stop movement in only one direction.
I hit a deer one night at speed and though the car was damaged the kayak on top stayed fixed in place.
That makes a lot of sense. If your Bow and Stern lines are mounted towards the middle of the vehicle in opposing directions you can control the angle and they would be much more effective.
Edit: How do you attach the straps to the kayak? The handles seem weak. @rstevens15 wraps a strap around the front and rear nose of the kayak and hooks the straps to that. That would be pretty effective with the straps angling back towards the middle of the vehicle.
I also tie both bow and stern lines to opposite sides of the car they would look like this /\ front and back. That is how the WW canoe I forgot to strap to the rack came home with just the bow and stern lines attached and didn’t budge.
So it works.
That would take a photo for the kayaks, and I don’t have a close up of that. I will try and describe it. I form a loop in the middle of the tie down rope. I but that loop around the handle and both perimeter lines on top of the kayak and feed both ends of the rope through the loop tightening it down. This makes a lark’s head knot with each line going in opposing directions to tie down. On the canoes I tie to the aluminum handles which look like small thwarts. The handles on the kayak could brake but would have no negative effect. My handles on the kayak I built are 1" wooden dowels not plastic. If I ever have to replace the plastic handles on the other kayak, they will be wooden also. Yes, a strap or rope around each end works well. the kayak I built has the perimeter lines attached to the kayak something like that.
Here is a photo of my dad at age 87 back in 2011 you can see how my perimeter lines are attached to the kayak I built. My dad is over 101 now.
“The handles on the kayak could break but would have no negative effect.”
How could it have no negative effect? That is what the Bow and Stern lines are attached to. I am thinking less about the handles themselves, but the straps thst tie the handles to the kayak and how the straps are fastened to the kayak. I have seen some iffy attachments. The handles and perimeter lines seem to be the weak point.
I am not to familiar with what you are referring to as “ perimeter lines.” I thought you were tslking about deck lines. How are Perimeter Lines attached to the boat?
You father looks like a Pistol.
They have held up well on my British made sea kayak over the last 15 years. Even been crash tested when I hit a deer. Remember there are also two straps holding the kayak to the rack and all my canoes and kayaks are composite and less than 52 pounds. I can’t vouch for other brands of kayaks. The handle and perimeter lines are attached to a 1/4" medal bar glassed into my kayak. The rope tie down goes over the top of the kayak and pulls down on the ends of the kayak not the handles like you often see people do.
deck lines = perimeter lines since they run the perimeter of the kayak.
My Dad was a WW2 pilot that flew both P38, P51 and trained on a B25. We hunted together up into his early 90s. He loves telling jokes.
The handles on my Santee 116 are not attached to the Kayak any where near that robust and both the straps holding the handles have broken. I can’t quite picture it but it sounds like Stern and Bowline attachment to the kayak is like a bridle pulling down on the boat itself, so it can not fail.
Met them during the construction of the Higgins Landing Craft for the D-Day Museum (WWII Museum now). I was standing there one day and this fella was standing next to me and said he just came from a pilots meeting at the Pecan Room in the Lakefront Airport. I said, yeah, you are a pilot? He said, yeah, I flew fighter planes during WWII. I was in awe. I do not believe the other people involved realized the history that was around them. Just absolutely awesome individuals.
Of course, strap noises OUTSIDE the car are always possible; a strategic twist eliminates them. But you won’t ever get any strap noise from the strap running inside the vehicle. It’s just not possible. The closed doors “isolate” that section of strap from anything happening outside. That’s been my experience transporting
Ooooh, you run the straps under the top of the door jam and close the door on them. I thought you ran them through the windows.
Exactly! In my case, the minivan’s sliding doors.
You are way ahead of me…
