No shortage of companies selling “ADA compliant” stuff to naive agencies.
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I think that is the point, they could care less about the Disadvantaged or to actually provide a useful service, it is just a means of making money through their political connections. There are just no ethics in this world today.
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This setup at a livery on Lake Union was the easiest thing I’ve seen for getting in and out of a kayak. Grab bars might make it compliant.
That looks outstanding.
Saving grace.
The boats in the pics-. One sealution and one dagger Charleston. It’s all roto all the time for me, at least for now.
You can get away with it in a Roto Mold, even though I still don’t like it. But those launches are virtually death for anything else.
I have heard a few mention it on this site but found the Sea Kayaker talk about it from about 2013 on their facebook page…saw that yesterday.
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Paddling in the West I have never seen one.
As you said, it has been known these Roller Launches do serious damage to a number of boat types since 2013, why are they still around? Something has to be done about this. I mean you have these expensive platforms and docks, take the roller launches themselves and retrofit them to smooth fabric. Come on for goodness sake.
This type of thing bothers me too. As you say, the decision-maker needs to have enough knowledge to make good decisions and when they fund poor designs they should be held accountable. I hate to say it but maybe the right action to take is to sue the city for damaging your boat. Or maybe contact local news agencies and tell them your story.
And scout for put-ins that look like this.
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You took the words right out of my mouth. This degree of irresponsibility for this length of time,hurting this many people, is just unacceptable and they should be held accountable. The conversation has got me disturbed about the government’s and the manufacturers’ total disregard and incompetence . I am going to try and do something about it, stay tuned.
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Most of the accessible launches around me are this type:
I’m not sure how damaging they are. I simply use the other side of the dock. I doubt I’d get much traction complaining about them because the vast majority of paddlers I see using them are casual paddlers with rotomolded rec kayaks and seem happy to have them.
I am trying to figure out how it works. Both ends seem to be raised in the picture.
Thanks
mjac
Only the paddle holders are raised. The ribs that support the kayak are flat.
No, the longitudinal ends, they both seemed to be raised out of the water.
Thanks
mjac
They’re not. The part where the V is cut slopes down. I can’t see what you’re seeing from that picture.
Edit: Here is a better view of the same launch:
That “EZ-dock” at the Paw Paw River County Park gouged the hell out of my composite kayak when I was forced to use it to escape the strong current there back in August 2022. It wasn’t so much the chute bottom as protruding metal hardware on the poorly designed structure. I had launched from the gravelly bank just upstream of the platform but we had to really fight to get back upstream to the launch site that day due to the flow rate. I had already been dragged twice past where I wanted to get out (there was nothing on the high set dock to grab onto) so against my better judgement, after letting the boat float back downstream and turning, I steered my bow into the chute entrance on the next approach to catch it. This is the abomination:
Please, you can’t see that slope in the first picture, I been staring at it. I thought the thing might be an hydraulic lift that lowers the boat into the water.