Yup! Not a purdy sight it be…
Dats a'nudder reason ah' only use rope an' me trusty knots on stem tiedowns an' not hooks. ratchets or udder hardwaar, etc. dat can come loose. Ever see a busted windshield fro' a flailin' cam buckle?
FE
Another good argument for hood loops.
My front tie-downs are too short to reach the wheels unless a bowline comes loose from the boat.
Nope
I’d imagine it’s similar to running over an extension cord going across the road. Not too much drama. If you were really unlucky and made the lines exactly the length to the contact patch of the rear tires and somehow they got pushed out to one side or the other by going around a sharp corner at that exact same moment, you could possibly damage your tire and/or damage the front line. Fortunately, that event is highly unlikely as the lines are visible so you could see it happening and would be able to immediate action.
I actually heard my rear tie down come undone once. Stopped the car, went back, found the hook, tied a better knot, resecured the tie down and was on my way again in less than 10 minutes. Most of the time was spent looking for the hook that fell off.
nope - much worse
If a bow line comes untied/unhooked from the bumper, but stays attached to the bow of the kayak, it will drag across the pavement at 60 mph for a short time until it hits the little patch of road in front of one of your front tires. The funny thing about the piece of tire that touches the road is that it is standing perfectly still. So when it runs over your bowline, that piece of rope instantly goes from 60 mph to standing dead still. It’s like the front of your kayak just hooked the arresting cable as you zip across the deck of the USS Enterprise! There’s a better than average chance that your kayak will fold in half before you can say “what’s that flapping sound?” 
In my mind this is certainly part of the equation when deciding whether to use bow and stern lines, especially very long ones. If using bow and stern lines I’d make them no longer than necessary (hood loops are great for this), and make sure you avoid a loose tail of line that could come free. Even if you tie it securely to the bow and the bumper, if the extra 2 feet of line come loose from where you wrapped them up, they can find their way under the tire and yank your bowline much tighter than you ever intended.
My point
If one side of the bow line comes untied/unhooked, it is under tension and is too short to reach the front tire while still going over the top of the surfski. So it would never get stuck under the tire. Now if it slid off and stayed hooked, it is attached to the stabilizer bar. Again, I think the rope would most likely break before the stabilizer bar gave way. But because of where it is positioned near the center, it would be very difficult to get the rope out to the tires in the first place.
Remember, this whole question was about the BMW 3 series set up. The front attachement points aren’t ideal, but they work. It would have been nice if BMW had put two tow hook attachments in the front and rear and provided 4 screw in hooks. Unfortunately, they don’t like spending any more money than they have to. So you get one attachement point at each end and only on one side with only one hook provided.
FE and Nate,
Yep, If the boat is a skinny, cored rowing shell, ski or canoe it will instantly snap in half.
A glass / kevlar or carbon boat will fold up.
This happens more than people want to admit.
A paddler who posts on here different
times can tell you all about it.
I think it took him several months to get the canoe repaired.
Jack L
kind of hard
to use stern and bow tie downs if you have nothing to tie them to–the OP said he didn’t have tie down points and apparently can’t use bow and stern tie downs on his BMW (at lest without marring the paint job)
Are you safer with them–yup–are they legally required–not that I know of–I have driven from Ottawa to Maine in the back wash of a hurricane and from Maine to DC/nova w/o bow/stern straps-My problem is the front grill and bumper and the rear grill of my ford offers no way to put them on–can’t loop them around the bumper like I did 20 years ago and no points to tie them to.
So I’ve gone without—yakima system with J-racks and in 10 years no problems–knock on wood
Tow hook attachment
I think using the single tow hook in the front bumper is a great idea, as long as there is some mechanism to prevent side-to-side motion of the boats and rack.
I use the tow hook on a Mini (same design as BMW) to prevent uplift on the rack system. The carriers are a pair of EZ-Vees, which in themselves prevent side-to-side movement. The roof rack attachment on the Mini is a large threaded stud bolted directly to the roof framing under the cosmetic white roof - very solid:
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l234/carldelo/Cape%20Breton/RoadTrip001.jpg
The tie down is a length of reflective deck line, with a load-rated carabiner at both ends. I pass it through the U-bolt on the bow of the boat and tighten with a slip knot. This works very well, and there are no loose ends. Occasionally it needs to be tightened while driving. It’s nice that the hook keeps the line away from the chrome and paint.
But this is no good if your rack system allows even a modest side-to-side movement. In that case, I would opt for the hood loops mentioned above to keep the bow stationary. The problems arise when a big gust or something cranks everything sideways.
Somebody mentioned above that they thought the rack attachment was more robust than a strap or rope. In terms of absolute strength, that’s probably true. But in an impact situation (crash, big pothole, sudden gust of wind), a large force that might snap a rigid bolted attachment may only stretch or tear a strap and not cause it to fail completely.
bow/stern tiedowns
Here we go. It’s not a bad idea to use them. on plastic boats don’t make them to tight. i use them if i’m going a long distance.more is better. VF ps, kayaks aren’t meant to fly.
Take a minute to be safer
I use front and rear tie downs for peace of mind. i did have the cleat on a strap fail (spring broke). I keep the tie down lines attached to the boats and coil then when paddling, thus having so lines on board if needed.
I use a truckers hitch to secure them loosely, and it takes less than a minute to tie each boat.
BTW–anyone have a recommendation on time frame for replacing tie down straps?
I gave good advice.
It is a shame that I didn’t post it before you lost your “factory rack”.
Please go back and read my post.- Read it nice and slow. Read every word that I wrote, and then digest it.
As long as I live I wouldn’t trust a factory rack
Jack L
An amusing side note:
There are pictures of the damage to the boat. Westcoastpaddler didn’t think it was important to show the damage, if any, to the Windstar.
He has his priorities in order.
Battle scars are honorable! A couple scratches here and there don’t matter, as long as function is not compromised. my $.02
Kaps
Common Sense
Many solutions have been presented in this thread. The important thing is not to have a single point of failure causing a kayak launch from your vehicle. You need to regularly check your rack equipment for wear. Think about what is going to happen if each component fails. Make sure each component is not underrated for its use and installed correctly. I see pros and cons for all the recommendations. Pick the best.
JimZ
Protecting paint
Go to your local hardware store and get some soft plastic tubing (it’s available in various diameters). Cut it to size and slip it on your tie-downs. Cheap and effective paint protection.
On the tie-down issue, I use them despite confidence in my Yakima rack and tie-down system. If I ever lost a boat and someone was injured, at least I would know I had made every reasonable effort to prevent a catastrophe short of giving up the sport.
If you have any doubts at all about
the condition of your straps, it’s probably time for replacements.
