: I am putting a 9" buoy in the bow and stern of my kayak for simple
: floatation and using Russ's bungie way of fastening it in tight. The loop
: on the left will be inside of an eye bolt fastened in the stern and bow
: and as you pull on the cords at the right, they become thin and allow the
: buoy to slip tight into place. Then letting go of the bungie cords swells
: them back to full dia and lock the buoy in. Thanks for the idea Russ.

hi john

neat idea, but i think you should really just buy some front and back float bags. a set is prob abt 30bucks down there and they will give you a bunch of flexibility. they are easy to blow up w the longish tubes, they will expand to fit your yak for major floatation if you want, they will deflate easily for you to fit storage say under or over them and reinflate to hold in place, they are long (just fold back what you don't need if too long - mine foldback 1.5ft or more) so easy to slide in or out(even the front one(s) b/c of the long blow tube comes back near the front of the cockpit so you can release or inc air simply from the cockpit(when you're out of it), the seat and band etcholds the rear bag sorta in place if deflated a bunch and the front one(s) are useally held in place by the footpegs sticking out if they are quite deflated

so basically, if you have the buoys, maybe try them out for a weekend for fun. but after that leave them in the water for the skiboat, and put in a set of airbags.

i know you're concerned about having too much floatation that over rides the side chambers, but i'd experiment with air bags and technique first. i would think IF the safe way is for the main body of the yak to have less air for the side chambers to work more effectively, then air bags could do a close to similar thing(as the smaller bouys) by just being deflated. if they have to be really deflated, maybe then some sort of restraint would keep their much lower size in place (netting bulkhead, line to back , partial bulkhead to sorta restrain). then maybe lengthen the blow tubes a bit and blow out the excess water by displacement when in the yak. And then you have the flexibility of really using then when technique increases and of course when loaded with gear(its self righting like the water)which the bag'll keep in place.

theres something really annoying about the idea of intentionally filling the yak in order to make it more stable if it's already clear, esp as your yak is already wide at 28in., but i guess that low floatation moment does it.

if you still think its a crock, use the airbags anyway and duct tape the first 75% together in a small tube and just inflate the end so its the size of the bouy but at least it'll conform to the shape of the yak(and stay), and be ready for other times.

-mick