I have question about stern tie downs. I understand the value in preventing the boat from flying off the front of the car in a collision. However, because my 16-foot canoe extends well beyond the rear of my car, a line extending from the stern of the boat to an attachment point under the bumper won’t keep the boat from sliding forward.
Well, it will eventually, but by the time the line catches, the bow of the canoe will likely have slammed into the hood of the car.
Or to people attach the stern tie down to another part of their boat (further forward, maybe?)
My boat is very secure just by attaching it to the rack. I can rock the whole car back and forth if I yank on the boat in any direction. When I am going on the freeway for any distance I also tie down the bow, the stern, and I tie the boat to the factory rails. The purpose of these last three is insurance in case the rack itself fails for some reason. I don’t want to kill anyone in the car behind me.
Keeping the boat from sliding forward wouldn’t be the purpose of the stern tie down. Well, it could be in some cases, but maybe not in yours. I’ve had a roof rack fail, heard of other roof racks failing, seen videos of racks failing. I use bow and stern tiedowns to secure my kayak/canoe against twisting forces along with all other types of forces acting on it such as acceleration or deceleration. They are not only a backup to rack failure, but they help to prevent rack failure.
For long drives at highway speeds I have, on occasion, tied to a thwart (the one behind the seat on a solo canoe), given a wrap around the rack, and tied to the rear bumper or receiver for the trailer hitch. The thought is that it would prevent the boat sliding forward in the event of an emergency stop or minor collision (as with an unexpected curb, snow bank, or traffic barrier). Though I’ve never had a case of the “tail wagging” (the stern shifting while the bow remains fixed), stern tie downs can’t hurt and have some value in protecting following vehicles in the unlikely event of rack failure or a strap breaking. I even know a fellow who ties both to a thwart and uses a separate triangulated line to attach to the stern loop. (He is a cautious fellow who loves to tie knots and does it quickly and well.) There are those who through an abundance of caution insist on religiously using stern tie downs every time and for even the shortest of drives. I would never fault them for this practice. Some use double straps as well in case of a cam lock or strap failure. Good for them, but I think that at some point one needs to have some faith and quit the redundancy bit.
But if one is going to use stern lines, attaching to an amidship thwart, though less convenient, is a more secure attachment.
And then I see professional outfitters carrying eight canoes on trailers on bouncy roads and highways using nothing but bungee cords, no bow or stern lines at all - and getting away with it.
But then we’re more careful than those pros…
Both bow and stern tiedown are required by most rack manufacturers for warranty coverage in the event of a rack failure. In addition they reduce the effect that the wind has in torquing the boat and stressing the rack and also the effect that pot holes and a rough road have in bouncing the boat. A stern tiedown may keep the boat on the car in the event of a rear end collision.
Good point about the warranty - I’ve not used either Yakama or Thules (mostly used Pannons bolted to a topper with 2X4 extensions) so was unaware of their warranty policies. Good info to know.
A bow line from the toggle or deck rigging that goes to the front of my vehicle.
A line from rear to rear of the rack, going from the rear of the rack around the front of the cockpit combing and then back to the rear of the rack. I use a tightening rope system (trucker knot) to pull on this line so that gives tension to the bow line as well.
and 4. are girth lines around the kayak, one in front of the cockpit and one behind the cockpit, also cinched down firmly.
This system works well at freeway speeds as well as driving long, rough roads and going up and down dry gulley’s to get my truck to and back from water. Never once has any kayak even shifted 1 inch in my years of using this system.
Here is a picture of 2 kayaks loaded on the rack I made, but with no lines tied yet. I don’t have a pic of the kayaks tied down, but with the above description and a look at the picture I think it’s easy to understand my meanings. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by Steve Zihn, on Flickr
Mostly bow and stern lines keep your boat lined up with the line of travel.
The tie downs on the rack have plenty of friction and keep boats from moving forward.
I normally set my straps to prevent any forward or backwards motion. I run a bowline to see any movement of the boat. The times that I feel the need for a rear line I find somewhere on the boat to prevent forward movement. That could be a thwart, security loop or around the cockpit depending on what boat I have on the rack. I always use a security cable.
If you drive in the West in mountains and canyons, you can encounter very strong cross winds without warning . Several times I have had my boats buffeted and shift on the racks even when they can go several hundred miles on Freeways without needing to tighten the tie downs, I use rear tie downs on anything longer than 10 feet.
Several years ago I was at an intersection in Ft. Colins Colorado and saw a car carrying a long canoe or kayak. The car had to stop abruptly to avoid collliding with another vehicle, and the boat and part of the rack continued through the intersection like a V1 buzz bomb and violently smashed and partially inserted into the passenger compartment of another vehicle. So if you are going on trips at high speed, use both front and back tie downs to avoid injuring others.
There are a lot of wind forces on a kayak/canoe which are transferred to the rack. It won’t necessarily fail during a hard stop but has happen when driving. Someone was killed by a kayak and rack not far from where I live, a few years back. The report wasn’t necessarily clear, but my impression was that braking wasn’t involved.
