Well, I've been unable distracted for a while but I think it's time to try to draw this series to a close. And surfyak hasn't been touched for about 4 weeks. I've finished the top and the sides except for a football shaped hole for ea. foot bump.

Actually its a funny story - you see before I went away I tried to finish the top and cut out the foot bumps. But as the strips are so tortured in this region, no sooner did I trim the holes to the football outline than CRRRAAACK!!!! - a couple of 6" to 8" long splits 1/8" or greater occurred between the perimeter strips. I was going away the next day so I wrapped a webbing clamp around, cinched it together, put glue in the cracks (first) and glued a bunch of scrap bits across the strips on the inside and let it all set up. The next morning I gently loosened the web clamp to see if it held and it worked...... so I went away for 10 days.....

Well, you see the glue must have been still uncured and when I was away everything must have slowly crept back to its old cracked location and now with all the gussets and all it wall really set up!!!! Read a little annoyance between the lines - but no one to blame but moi! So I soaked the livin' crap out of the whole thing with warm water, cinched 'er up with two clamps and came back 10 more days later, and its almost like it never happened. In fact I'm never telling, so don't you either - and no one will ever know!!!

Ok, leaving this and hatches behind, here are a few ways of dealing with end grabs. Several problems with end grabs that I've seen and read to date are:

- A looped tie is dangerous to your hand, fingers etc.

- Grab should extend beyond your kayak. (Same prob as above)

- Free grabs bounce around and wreck your finish

- Free grabs catch spray

- Hanging grabs destroy your kayak aesthetic lines

Now I have assumed that stem and bow pieces are being used because it's easier to explain, but they are not necessary (for this). Basically they're all based on a removable stem pc.

1)Rigged Deck

Install all front deck fittings except bow fitting. 2" back under the bow, drill a 1/4" diam hole and 4" back on top from the bow connect through to another 5/8" diam hole. Connect as in any other methods described by others (dooky-smutz drilled, toe jam and hose).

Cut or grind (sand, carve) away the upper 4" of the Stem Pc. Put a slot or notch in this area (vertical, centred, right where stem was removed). Carve an interesting (Auk, Loon or Guillemot) 4" long figurehead or mermaid to fit the missing stem pc and to partially fit the notch or groove. Attach 1/4" rope to the middle of the figurehead ( or plain) "stem piece". Push free end thru the hole in the bow and connect up to the bungee deck lines.

So now you have:

- End grab that disappears into or complements the lines of your boat

- End grab that doesn't bounce around

- End grab that retracts (connected to bungee)

- Shock system so your poor little fingers can hold on for dear life a little better

- Strong as you wish to make it - use larger diam rope - tie knot so won't pull through

- Always at the extreme end of the yak so you don't have to scrabble around if you're in dire straits.

2) Unrigged deck

If you have a totally uncluttered deck and wish to minimize visual distractions - make every thing as before but make hole on top of bow slightly larger. Use bungee to attach the end grab, pull through the hole and pull snug so the grab doen't move out of place. Tie a knot in end, tuck it in the wider hole and plug the hole. So now you have a concealed retractable grab with most of the advantages of the one above.

See dwg 11 for basic idea.