C-Forum

Ok you old salts let hear some ideas about a bulkhead in a kayak conversion. Good or bad, or should I just do the traditional straps?

In my opinion, a bulkhead & lap-belt is the easiest, most secure thing to do. Just carve it out of 3" foam & shove it in You'll probably want to carve a shim to go between the bulkhead & the pillar to keep the bulkhead from slipping forward. Put a bungee through it to hold your water jug.

bulkheads are ok in playboats, but not ok in a creekboat. the bulkhead prohibits gear storage in the bow. not a big deal if you only do day trips, but that would be sad....doing only day trips.

Bulkhead and a lap-belt? Not sure if I'm good with getting that "locked" in quite yet. Can I get a secure enough fit without the lap-belt for a few or am I going to be swimming without it?

Sidenote - this is a playboat/river runner, I got my Quake to creek in. This is my first go at playboating in a C1...

You can do fine w/o the lap-belt. I find it helps to keep me planted when I'm upsidedown & gives me more control of the boat. It does take a little longer to get out with a lap-belt. I've broken two paddles this year & had to reach up under my skirt to release my lap-belt to get out. I think that while not essential, the lap-belt helps my roll, but if you swim it's going to take an extra couple of seconds to get out of the boat. FWIW, it took me a LONG time to even consider the belt. I thought they were a death wish.

I like the Idea of a bulkhead and no straps in a creekboat for the saftey factor. being able to exit fast in a pinch is great. as well you can still get a good bit of gear up there if you design it right...

>>I like the Idea of a bulkhead and no straps in a creekboat for the saftey factor. being able to exit fast in a pinch is great. as well you can still get a good bit of gear up there if you design it right...<<

Having skinny legs makes for bigger holes in the bulkhead - more room to stuff pork products in the bow for ballast

Jim P wrote:
Having skinny legs makes for bigger holes in the bulkhead - more room to stuff pork products in the bow for ballast

Touche'

squeakyknee wrote:I like the Idea of a bulkhead and no straps in a creekboat for the saftey factor. being able to exit fast in a pinch is great. as well you can still get a good bit of gear up there if you design it right...

I sat in an M3 (H3?? dunno) for sale at Gauleyfest that had been converted with just a bulkhead, held in with a wooden thwart spanning between the thigh brace holes. The back/hip area was very foamed out to hold you in. Really nice, secure conversion, with easy entry and exit.

Walsh wrote:

squeakyknee wrote:I like the Idea of a bulkhead and no straps in a creekboat for the saftey factor. being able to exit fast in a pinch is great. as well you can still get a good bit of gear up there if you design it right...

I sat in an M3 (H3?? dunno) for sale at Gauleyfest that had been converted with just a bulkhead, held in with a wooden thwart spanning between the thigh brace holes. The back/hip area was very foamed out to hold you in. Really nice, secure conversion, with easy entry and exit.

Yup, that was mine. It was a great set-up,but the boat was just too darn big for me.

Hey squeakyknee you got any pics of that outfitting?

i guess you could stuff some small bags throught the bulhead, but that sounds like a pain. it would be really slick if the bulkhead could be removed easily for access.

Larry Horne wrote:it would be really slick if the bulkhead could be removed easily for access.

All of my bulkheads have been force fits. I don't put more than lunch & an extra water jug up there though. The reason I make them this way is it's easy. Just carve 'em out of 3" foam & shove 'em in the boat. With the two Wavesports I've done I used ~3-3.5" of foam between the front of the bulkhead & the front pillar for "proper" placement.

Easy removal was cool a couple of weeks ago. I found two really neat pieces of wood that I wanted to keep. I just popped the bulkhead out so I could stash my find. Shoved the bulkhead back in & paddled real easy the rest of the day.

I've got some photos of the Forplay that I converted. I no longer have them posted on the web, but I can e-mail them if anyone is interested.

pdown2 wrote:Hey squeakyknee you got any pics of that outfitting?

Searchin but haven't found any yet.
it was basically a whole bunch of random scraps pieced together with a 6" thick bulkhead held down by a twart between the thigh brace adjustment holes on the H3
I used a cam strap to hold it all in place along with the typical fencepost center rail and pedestal.
The camstrap made it simple to pull out the bulkhead and stuff bags or gear up front then strap it all in.