After a long hiatus (too long) it is time to get back into working on the kayak. However, to do this, I needed to move it from Oak Harbor to Bellingham, about a 50 mile drive. The complication is that my car (Subaru Forester) has not yet been equipped with a suitable kayak rack. It only has the stock luggage rack. So ... stealing a trick from Jon Pickett and Bryan Albert from the last Sucia Island kayak extravaganza ... I went to Ace Hardware and purchased a six-foot section of pipe insulation. Cost: $2.85.

The pipe insulation was for a one-inch pipe. This is wide enough to provide enough padding across the whole of the luggage rack support. Man's best tool supplement — duct tape — is used to attach the pipe insulation to the luggage rack.

Alternate view of the front rack. I only cut enough of the insulation to pad the width of the boat.

Voilá! Roof rack! Note a few things here that I failed to take pictures of earlier. First, I used some plastic to cover up the cockpit area. I did this because I expected rain, but it proved smart because it would've been bad for the cockpit to catch air on the somewhat windy trip to Bellingham. Second, I used some ratchet straps (Lowe's, $10.00 total for four straps — and I only used two) to actually keep the kayak attached to the rack. Some pictures of that are below.

Alternate view of the überhack roof-rack.

Alternate view of the überhack roof-rack.

The two straps connecting, keeping pressure on each respective strap.

Here you can see how the other end of the strap was connected. Pretty simple, really.

View of the front strap.

Kayak safely at rest in the new Bellingham garage. I suppose this means I have to actually finish the thing now.