I won the Old Town Sea Otter kayak being raffled off last weekend at my
son's basketball tournament!!!  We are pumped!!!  I have had plenty of
with canoes but I must admit to being a totally ignorant first time kayak
paddler.  We would like to take it along on a road trip in a few weeks
and would appreciate some tips on how to best carry it up top on a Westy.

We will also be carrying four bikes on our new rear hatch mounted
Paulchen rack and an assortment of gear in a dry bag that takes up the
entire luggage rack and is about one foot in height from the bottom of
the luggage rack.

We brought the boat home (60 mile trip) from the tournament by scavenging
some rope from teammates vehicles and lashing it to the Thule crossbars,
and front and rear tow hooks, on my wife's Jetta.  The boat was inverted
and the flat area around the cockpit was what actually rested on the load
bars.  This seemed very stable on a short 60 mile trip.

The simple no cost solution would be to set my extra tall Thule uprights
and load bars up over the pop top and lash on the boat as above.  Or I
could spring for the artificial rain gutters and bolt them to the pop top
and use my lower profile uprights that I used with this setup on my
former Westy.  A little additional cost, a little additional angst in
drilling holes in the pop top, but as long as the boat would clear the
bikes in the rear, I could raise the pop top without dismounting boat or
rack.

Other questions:

- Are the luggage rack tie downs of sufficient strength to anchor a tie
down line from the bow of the boat?

- I have the Thule canoe carrier kit.  Anyone use this to secure a kayak
using the stock configuration?  Alternately, can the four mounting
attachments in this kit be installed on the bars "backwards", rotated 180
degrees, so that they serve to locate the boat on the crossbars from
inside the cockpit, and preventing F-B and L-R movement?

- Can I use the foam blocks and just lash the boat to the roof?

- Oh yeah, the boat did not come with a paddle.  Any buying tips
appreciated.  Also are most paddles one piece, or are there some that
break down for transport, or are adjustable for different users?

- Where do you carry your paddle in your fully loaded Westy?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Tony

Anthony L. Mourkas
Hampden, Maine, USA
1984 Vanagon Westfalia
1987 Vanagon GL Syncro
1991 Jetta Eco Diesel