: The idea of a pulley and ropes should work quite well to move the gear bag to
: the bow of my kayak as per Paul G Jacobson. Re: Bulkhead Question on the
: forum.Would it be possible to make a gear bag that would double as a float
: bag?I could design it with stiff sides and a tight closure to keep air in
: it.That would keep the yak from standing on end because the stern is water
: tight now.

Except for the difficult sitting position, if the front end sinks you'll attract emergency response faster with the stern sticking up, high above the waves. Paint the skeg or rudder red or orange and I could probably see you from here.

Ahh, but you prefer not to call in for help, and to keep the boat horizontal.

Head over to the local fabric shop for some clear vinyl fabric. Get the thickes you can find. It will be with the uphoslstery fabrics.
the head to the hardware store and look in the adhesives section for a tube of VLP, or Vinyl Liquid Plastic, which is a very nice clear glue for vinyl.

Roll your vinyl sheet into a tall cone and glue the seam. After the glue sets up you can cut a rectangle about 18 to 24 inches wide and a bit longer than the circumference of the big end of your cone. Make this into a donut, matching the circimerence of this to the end of the cone, and glue it to the cone.

If the seams look iffy, cut some long strips of your vinyl, abotu an inch wide, butter them with the VLP, and press them over the seam overlap. Keep pressure on until the glue sets up.

You can load gear through the big end, and then roll up the extra plastic to seal things like a commercial watertight bag. Leave extra air in there and it will float -- with or without gear in it.

If you can't find VLP, you may have good results with GOOP, GOOP3000 or Shoe goo. You can get the Shoe Goo at sporting goods stores. It is used for rebuilding the soles on running shoes, sticks to vinyls and urethane rubber. the other products seem to be almost the same thing.

If you can rig the gear to do it, you can heat seal the vinyl instead of gluing it. Takes some setup, the right temperature and pressure, and some practice, but you get a good seam.

Hope this helps.

PGJ