Hi Ian
Your right about the tiedowns - too many dont have them. Equally disappointing that someone should pinch one.
Nice racks - bit of good old Kiwi ingenuity
: Hi there

: I decided to have a go at building my own custom cradles, but using
: 1" x 1/4" strip aluminium instead. It worked really
: well. Each cradle is rigid and very strong. In my case, I was
: able to bolt it through the rack, because the rack crossbars are
: thick enough to accommodate two holes and I could slide an
: insert into the crossbar tube to support the bolts.

: Each cradle is in two parts - a piece tailored to fit the hull, and
: then a J shape outside that to hold it rigid. Bending the
: aluminium was easy using a vice. Three stainless steel bolts
: hold it together, and also bolt it to the crossbar.

: It cost about NZD20 for a 3 metre strip of aluminium, plus some
: stainless bolts. I fitted a plastic clip onto a short webbing
: loop, with a bungee to haul over the kayak, and used contact
: adhesive to add strips of minicell foam onto the aluminium to
: protect the hull. The angled cradle makes it easy to put the
: boat on the rack myself, leaves space for more, and accommodates
: the J shape which is integral to the strength of the cradle.

: Make sure you tether front and back as well though. I did this
: using John Caldeira's nifty idea of adding a webbing loop on
: either side of the car's bonnet (hood), for a tether up to the
: bow, and a further tether from the tow ball to the stern.

: For the trip home from our holiday, I took a "she'll be
: right" attitude because some idiot had pinched my front
: tether. I drove home without it. After 100km of open road
: driving, we hit a very strong cross wind while crossing a bridge
: ... and the rack exploded. The cradles held fine, but the force
: of the crosswind sheered the bolts clamping the crossbars to the
: car's roof rails, and the whole assembly took off. Fortunately I
: still had it tethered at the back, but the kayak took a bit of a
: hit. A lot less damage than I would have expected (tip of bow
: was crushed, and a few scratches where the kayak was pivoted on
: the tow ball-mounted bike rack - it bent a 1" pipe on the
: bike rack! By rights the kayak should have snapped in half ...
: phew ...).

: I was most embarrassed to have had an unsecured load though. So
: many people transport kayaks without bow/stern tethers. So
: please do learn from my mistake!

: Regards, Ian