Woven Rope Carrying Handles

[pawistik]

Pedro Almeida over at the Kayak Building Bulletin Board has provided instructions for making carrying handles for a kayak (but equally applicable to canoes) out of woven cord. The handles are unique, interesting, and would likely work very well. You can see a picture of them here and another view here.

Here is a link to the word document which is his written set of instructions.

Cheers,
Bryan

[Doug]

Thanks for the post Bryan.

I have always enjoyed showing of my rope work, now I have another one, to show off.

Question, the rope on the outside edge of the kayak picture, is that for rescue purpose?I have seen similar line on other kayaks.

Doug


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[pawistik]

... Question, the rope on the outside edge of the kayak picture, is that for rescue purpose?I have seen similar line on other kayaks.

Yes. The perimeter line gives something to hang on to when you end up in the water and not in your boat. I gather that this can be pretty important in a rescue situation. There was a story posted on another forum recently which told the tale of two experienced kayakers who ran into some trouble in rough water. See their story here. Both were dumped and were unable to successfully roll back up and stay there. One fellow, being in the water hung onto his boat by the toggle at the end, but the wave action grabbed the boat and yanked it from his hands and the boat was swiftly carried away on the waves. The second fellow was able to hang onto the deck lines and both paddlers stayed with the one remaining kayak in this way. In the end they were rescued by a coast guard helicopter after being in the water for 2 1/2 hours. Their story is very interesting, particularly the analysis of what worked and what did not. Some points I took away from their story with respect to deck lines: 1) they are very helpful when you're in the water, 2) they should be strong enough to withstand some pretty significant forces, and 3) you should be able to grab them with cold hands and/or while wearing paddling gloves. Pedro used retro-reflective cord as his perimeter lines to add yet another element of safety to his boat.
Cheers,
Bryan

[Bryan Hansel]

A quick note about perimeter deck lines --- make sure they are not stretchy, so don't use bungie line for them, and make sure they are loose enough to fit your hands with gloves on under them easily. They should cover most if not all of the perimeter of the kayak. The only place on my kayak that doesn't have them is at the cockpit.

They are extremely helpful during rescues and are a must for any kayak that is going to be used in open water or rough conditions.