C-Forum

I have an open boat with Mike Yee outfitting (knee and thigh straps). I’m thinking of keeping the thigh straps but removing the knee straps and going with a foam bulkhead to secure my knees. I figure this will do just as good (possibly better?) job securing the knees, and will help to displace a little more water.

I’ve never seen a boat with bulkhead and straps, so I’m wondering if there is a problem with this kind of set up? Has anyone done it?

Any info is appreciated!

I've seen the combination once - full bulkhead and straps but it is dangerous because it hampers exiting the boat- so the straps were removed.

I'd say go for the full bulkhead because it is so much better than straps for rolling.

As far as straps and footpegs go, I would say that when they are properly adjusted, they hold you equally well into the boat. The criteria I'm using for this statement is that when my straps are properly adjusted, I _cannot_ pull my knee off of the hull of the boat. Therefore, if my knee lifts up, the boat must follow. However, getting straps properly adjusted definately takes some time and effort.

As for the bulkhead - with a full bulkhead, you will not be able to exit in the event of a backdeck pin... but unless you're doing serious creeking with your open boat, I'm not sure how realistic this situation is. The other big advantage of a bulkhead is that you can get in and out much more quickly, especially if you're using footpegs to hold yourself into the outfitting, and not knee straps or a lap belt.

If you want to displace more water, and have ease of entry/exit, go for the bulkhead... but if you're doing it to gain better contact with the boat, maybe spend some time thinking about your strap setup and adjustment before spending the money on all that foam!

cheers,
-allan

I have found that 2 independent straps (1 knee 1 thigh) can be tightened better than 1 continuos strap. However this will not displace any more water- larger float bags.