I recently bought my first kayak (yeah me - a Perception Sierra) and
have been transporting it by strapping it upside down to my Thule
bars. It seems to work well. But everyone I see is using some sort of
kayak attachment on their Thule/Yakama bars: saddles, j-bars or
stackers, etc.

I can see where these might be useful with a nice fiberglass sea kayak
or if it's necessary to carry the boat on its side. But do the
attachments add anything with an inexpensive plastic kayak? I fail to
see how strapping the kayak to bars clamped on the crossbars would be
any more stable than strapping them to the crossbars themselves.

What am I missing? Thanks for any help,
Sal

salmoneous wrote:
[snip]
I can see where these might be useful with a nice fiberglass sea kayak
or if it's necessary to carry the boat on its side. But do the
attachments add anything with an inexpensive plastic kayak? I fail to
see how strapping the kayak to bars clamped on the crossbars would be
any more stable than strapping them to the crossbars themselves.

Yeah, the saddled are primarily useful for protecting the relatively
fragile hull of fiberglass boats, like some sea/touring/racing kayaks.
For anything else, they are just candy.

Stackers are very useful to maintain the verticalness of one or more
kayaks stacked up on edge vertically, such as running shuttle, or any
other such application where you'd like to carry several boats.

Most all the other toys are just that: toys. J-bars, etc. They may be
more conveient for some weaker/disabled people, but I fear most who use
them just like then as cool toys, or get them to impress someone, the
stupidest reason to do anything!

--
John Kuthe,
1st rule of Govt: protect people from Govt
2nd rule of Govt: protect people from each other
BUT: It must *never* become the job of Govt to protect people from
themselves!

I have a different opinion about the saddles and j-cradle. I have a
plastic Current Design Storm. I use a Yakima rack with J-cradle. The
cross bars are spread to the dimension of the kayak bulkheads. When
traveling, the kayak rests in the J-Cradle and the bulkheads support the
kayak. I never have any oil canning or dents in my hull...and that's
the way I like to care for my kayak. As for impressing others, if
there are impressed by a five year old plastic kayak without any dents
well so be it. John

John Kuthe wrote:
salmoneous wrote:
[snip]

I can see where these might be useful with a nice fiberglass sea kayak
or if it's necessary to carry the boat on its side. But do the
attachments add anything with an inexpensive plastic kayak? I fail to
see how strapping the kayak to bars clamped on the crossbars would be
any more stable than strapping them to the crossbars themselves.


Yeah, the saddled are primarily useful for protecting the relatively
fragile hull of fiberglass boats, like some sea/touring/racing kayaks.
For anything else, they are just candy.

Stackers are very useful to maintain the verticalness of one or more
kayaks stacked up on edge vertically, such as running shuttle, or any
other such application where you'd like to carry several boats.

Most all the other toys are just that: toys. J-bars, etc. They may be
more conveient for some weaker/disabled people, but I fear most who use
them just like then as cool toys, or get them to impress someone, the
stupidest reason to do anything!

Sal,

If the boat's secure and you are not getting any dents in it then keep doing
what you are doing and save your money. The Sierra is a pretty stout little
boat and strapping it upside down directly to your racks should be fine.
You might consider some foam blocks between the racks and the kayak that are
cut to match the shape of the fore and aft decks (for upside down
transporting). They will protect the surface of the craft some and also
provide a less slippery interface between your rack and your boat yielding a
slightly more secure tie down.

One of the plastic boats that I had in the past would deform a lot when I
pulled hard on the tie down straps. I cut a square of 2" pink insulation
foam to match the internal height of the foredeck and shoved it into the
boat whenever I tied it down. That took care of any denting and cost nada
because it was a scrap piece of foam. Kayaking doesn't really need to be as
techy and costly as some folks like to make it out to be. Skip the fancy
rack attachments, buy an assload of sunscreen and get out on the water.

Cheers

DV


"salmoneous" wrote in message
om...
I recently bought my first kayak (yeah me - a Perception Sierra) and
have been transporting it by strapping it upside down to my Thule
bars. It seems to work well. But everyone I see is using some sort of
kayak attachment on their Thule/Yakama bars: saddles, j-bars or
stackers, etc.

I can see where these might be useful with a nice fiberglass sea kayak
or if it's necessary to carry the boat on its side. But do the
attachments add anything with an inexpensive plastic kayak? I fail to
see how strapping the kayak to bars clamped on the crossbars would be
any more stable than strapping them to the crossbars themselves.

What am I missing? Thanks for any help,
Sal