: Have minor line experience here, but some thoughts.

: You want fittings as recessed as possible as when you clamber up in dire
: conditions, anything anything anything that grabs onto you pfd, drysuit,
: booties or hacks your hands is problematical. Esp up near the rear of the
: cockpit where you will be scrabbling around for sure. I've had enough jabs
: in the rear and I can just feel the wetsuit ripping!

: You want lines that are as tight strong and paddle stabilizing as possible
: and yet quick to put the paddle under. So for initial(as soon as you put
: it in)tightness use bungee line. For strength use 5/16 or larger to good
: backed fittings. For stabilization use lines as far apart as possible with
: alternates in between for screw ups. Many yaks have the X but my
: reactionis that its too easy to screw up, so my first try would be like
: your W but doubled like lUUl where the spaces between the letters are
: zero. Like 6 fittings, 2 on ea edge and 2 down the c/l. The base of the
: UU's is against the cockpit so the lines are aesthetically placed to
: follow the cockpit and also the loops are easy at hand to pull or yank.
: Diagonal lines just cause problems when using and more importantly,
: locations for the day hatch aren't compromised by diagonal lines going
: over. You can place a hatch on either side, just make it(them) flush so no
: compromising ease of pushing the paddle thru or holding in place or
: dislodging when paddle racking back and forth.

: For ease of use, I'd fix little rubber szuare cut cylinders or
: tubes(preferred) or balls in the c/l of each line and underlap to allow
: the paddle to easily slide under the lines.Like they're slightly separated
: from the hull. But at the outside lines, what about putting 2 small ones
: side by side about 1 in apart to that the paddle shaft (no matter which
: side used) is more likely trapped in the groove betw the cylinders.

: And if we're dealing w/ safety, every pc of line at every fitting here should
: be tied off or say double knotted at each side of the fitting. NO
: continuous line b/c why have multi fk ups if one pc breaks????or the whole
: assembly goes? Especially when it counts. So redundancy. One breaks - 5
: more to go.

: I really like the idea of (recessed of course) jam cleats every where, but
: don't know how you'd release them. So maybe just 2 as you infer on the
: outer first fitting only (1 is fixed) so there is some possibility to fix.
: this is the line for the double cylinders (maybe make them sliding on the
: other line as well)

: I'm also intrigued by the idea of the free end having a loop and being a
: step-cinch. It's a step up into the yak but also cinches down the paddle
: by doing. Could maybe stay in that position for a while, while resting.

The double line on the c/l of the yak presupposes strong bulkheads below each(like a bulkhead for the dayhatch and one just behind for the main hatch w/ the fittings being close to inline and the fitting separation max the paddle width). But this is potentially a very weak area of the yak. If there is any chance that the racking could compromise the hatch rim or the bulkhead below, don't use middle fittings. The ones near the side will be way less problematical. The more I think about it, the more I'd approach a central fitting w/ care.

If that is the case, then I'd try to make the cockpit side bukhead in 2 or sevaral parts and follow the cockpit rim and put the dayhatch in the little triangle just behind ea hip. aNd assuning 2 or 3 lines abovea ea sheer, I'd connect all the c/l w/ a triangular pc of hard( it must be stiff ) plastic say 4in wide by 4 long, maybe the bottom would be the 2 cylinder analogs(make it one pc) and then bungee or wide webbing or narrow netting in between the 2 sets of parallel lines. The idea being that you just shove the blade under the first set and ram it across and the lines/web/net hard plastic end guides the blade under the far side. The c/l line location and the offset dayhatch don't coincide so no interference.

The idea is not to crack the bulkhead seal just as you need it most.

-mick

ps another idea is to make these 2 little cylinders sliding and far apart but with one line below when you shove the paddle thru, then cinch the cylinders over one way or the other to trap the shaft.