How to Transport Kayaks: Beginning Kayaking Lesson

Video Transcript

"Welcome to Expert Village. My name is Lloyd Reeves and we are going to talk briefly about transporting boats. There are lots of different boats and ways to transport them. If you live in a rainy climate you can get a cockpit cover for these but you can still get water in them. I like transporting my sea kayak’s upside down. That also sets it up so that the sunlight bounces off of here but does not do much to the natural wood and also when it is upside down, you don’t have anything get inside. Surf skies, the hull are a little stronger than the deck. Those I like to transport right side up but they are self balanced so it can rain all at once and the water just drains out the bottom. Plastic kayaks, they are not real strong, they will warp when you tie them down and it is important to have as little warping as you can on your plastic kayaks. A lot of companies make upright bars that go up right and allow the boats to be transported like this. It is kind of neat. It keeps too much from getting inside and the strength of the hull this way is a lot stronger than the other way. If I want to transport plastic kayaks, I transport them on their edge. Here we go; we have an example of a surf ski tied up. I got this one on pretty sound. I have about a quarter of the boat sticking out the front and another quarter in the back. It is sort of centered nicely and it is a custom built rack which is just a Mickey Mouse one we did real fast at home here. The cradles are set up nice so it is well balanced. We can go pretty quick on the freeway. Got little flags on the back so people don’t drive into the back of us and it has a self bowery that you can see right here. So any rain water that we have just drips drains right out the back. I can leave this boat on here for 2 or 3 days before I paddle it next. Let’s go have some fun. "