Xayak rotating in the rack

[NotThePainter]

My new kayak, a P&H Cetus MV has been rotating in the rack when I hit bumps. This happens on bumpy dirt roads and even happened once on the highway when I hit a nasty pothole. The straps are tightened down hard to enough so I can move the vehicle but not move the boat, but no tighter than that. (This is what the Lincoln dealer taught us for the Lincoln and it seems like a decent idea for the Cetus.

I’m thinking I can move the saddles further apart to get more saddle on the more vertical part of the hull, but the hull is is curved I’m not sure it will help. The Lincoln doesn’t shift, nor did my pretty hard chined Hurricane Sojurn.

Obviously, this is concerning. What can I do to stop it?

[Celia]

Might not help your problem, but off the top I see one thing that is different from how I strap down. I always run the straps around the boat to inside of the saddle or glide pad mounts, as well as wrapping the strap around the crossbar once before it gets to the buckle. Your straps are outside and not taken up an extra time before the buckle, providing more length for the boat to move around in. I also tie off the end of the strap beyond the cam to the rail and tie that down, though this may be something you normally do but is not pictured here.

I am seeing bow lines in one photo, yes? So that part not a factor.

Are the straps positioned over or near a bulkhead in back? If they can be, it’ll give you a shot at tightening them down what may seem like hard. And in general the Brit boats have more reinforcement in front of the cockpit than N American manufactured boats. For rescues. You may be able to pull a bit tighter forward than you could with the Lincoln.

Other than that your system is a copy of what I have on my non-Hullivator side, Thule glide pads in back and saddles up front. I don’t experience this issue even traveling with just one strap (long trips are two at each point), so some of this may relate to bar spacing and the particular shape of the Cetus.

[Marshall]

Celia’s got it. Spread the saddles a bit wider so it cups the chine more and run the straps interior to the saddles so when snugged they pull downward into the saddles rather than allowing side to side sway.

I haven’t seen SPT straps in some time. Good stuff that’s no longer made.

See you on the water,
Marshall Seddon
The River Connection, Inc.
9 W. Market St.
Hyde Park, NY
845-229-0595 main
845-242-4731 mobile
Main: www.the-river-connection.com
Store: www.the-river-connection.us
Facebook: fb.me/theriverconnection

[tlb]

I think my method is similar to Celia’s: loop the strap under over the hull, under the cross bar on the opposite side(directly below the hull, straight down -not spread out),

over the hull, and under the cross bar on the first side. I don’t use bow & stern tie down ropes but I use 4 straps instead of two, have driven 300 miles with a Lincoln Isle de Haute without a problem.

[pikabike]

You can see how the left cradle pad is straight and the right one is wrapping around the chine. Yes, spread the cradles far enough apart that both wrap around the chines, That alone might be enough to prevent Rotisserie d’qajaq.

[Peter-CA]

Added to running the straps interior of the saddles, if the strap is long enough you could also make an extra lap around the kayak.

Rather than just tying off the pigtail of extra strap, I prefer to use the strap to be holding the kayak on. A strap that just goes over the top is covering 180 degrees of boat. I go over top, under boat (and sometimes under crossbar also) and then over top again for a 540 degree wrap. I think my normal straps are 12 or 14’.

[NotThePainter]

@Celia said:
Might not help your problem, but off the top I see one thing that is different from how I strap down. I always run the straps around the boat to inside of the saddle or glide pad mounts, as well as wrapping the strap around the crossbar once before it gets to the buckle. Your straps are outside and not taken up an extra time before the buckle, providing more length for the boat to move around in.

Bingo, thanks for the quick response.

I also tie off the end of the strap beyond the cam to the rail and tie that down, though this may be something you normally do but is not pictured here.

We tuck them in the front doors or the rear hatch.

I am seeing bow lines in one photo, yes? So that part not a factor.

Absolutely!

Are the straps positioned over or near a bulkhead in back? If they can be, it’ll give you a shot at tightening them down what may seem like hard. And in general the Brit boats have more reinforcement in front of the cockpit than N American manufactured boats. For rescues. You may be able to pull a bit tighter forward than you could with the Lincoln.

Yes, they are in the rear on both boats! I don’t think so in the front.

@Marshall said:
Spread the saddles a bit wider so it cups the chine

I wondered about that. You can see in the photo where the boat has already rotated the saddle also rotated to conform to the chine better.

I haven’t seen SPT straps in some time. Good stuff that’s no longer made.

They are KanuLock straps. Which reminds me, I need to order a key, I bent one. And nobody noticed the blue hair tie? That’s how we tell the 2 differently keyed straps apart. Blue is for boys… :- )

@Peter-CA said
Added to running the straps interior of the saddles, if the strap is long enough you could also make an extra lap around the kayak.
Rather than just tying off the pigtail of extra strap, I prefer to use the strap to be holding the kayak on. A strap that just goes over the top is covering 180 degrees of boat.

I think I can do that, our straps are pretty long, but I’m not certain.

Thanks everybody! I should be able to try that soon. It might not be the next trip. I actually need to get to Home Depot for some aluminum angle iron to adjust my carrier. I used a piece of flat aluminum to prevent the saddles from rotating on the round tube but that’s just not working out. So I’ll angle iron but I need to notch it and paint and then drill it and tomorrow may be a nice paddling day. :- )

[NotThePainter]

Thanks everybody for the help. We’ve been running the new configuration for about 6 weeks now, highway speeds and this weekend we did the very washboarded dirt road that really shook my boat loose last time. We have success! The boats are stable.

Here’s the Cetus, the one that moved:

and there’s the Lincoln. It hadn’t moved before but we took the opportunity to make it better.

Moving the saddles to wrap better and getting more strap on them really help. Thanks paddling community!