Carbon Eyestraps

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Our boatbuilder friend Russell Brown makes these beautiful carbon fiber eyestraps.  Russell fabricates these in his shop for his own boats and boat kits, and now you can put them on your own boat.

But these aren't just an aesthetic tweak, not at all.  The advantages include light weight, a sleek profile, and here's the best thing:  you GLUE them to the deck of your kayak or small boat instead of screwing or bolting them on.  Carefully bonded, you will tear the deck off your kayak before these eyestraps will come loose.  We've tried. 

Save a buck each by ordering six-packs.

Installation Instructions (PDF)

   Padeyes would certainly work.  On the 17 lt I built 7 years ago there is a sheerclamp.  I just folded the end of the strap over, melted a hole with a heated awl, and screwed to the sheer clamp.  It's still in place.

Alternate methods, cut a slot in the hip brace to fasten to.  

I'm sure others have other methods.

My only caution.  Make sure you hip braces are in strongly. I just slapped some "dookie smutz" on the top and bottom of mine and shoved them in.  One popped loose during rolling practice.  Now have a strip of bias fiberglass around the joint for reinforcement.

PS: 7 years out I finally had to put a 3" wide strip of new glass on the first 3 feet of the bow and stern from too many beach landings.  I tend just to let it run in. They call it sand paper for a reason.  Now have a petrel and an outerisland. I still take the Chessie out sometimes and am impressed with how well it performs on the sometimes choppy Hudson.  Also good for taking my 16 month old niece out. Once on a quiet day opened the back hatch and put an border collie in.for a mile long paddle to an island.

Ed

Ed 

���Thanks Ed I've been considering cutting the slit into the hip braces, and I have a few of the carbon fiber eyestraps that I made up, of course they are nowhere near as pretty as the ones Hooper linked to. But, what I'm picturing in my mind almost resembles a D-ring with a flat "beaver-tail" that would glue to the sheer clamp.

   For glass and cordage Make your own soft pad eyes

   This is what I am going to try out:

I took a 16" length of 2" carbon fiber uni tape, folded it in half lengthwise end to end, rolled it up in a long thin tight tube, and covered it with a fiberglass sleeve from soller composites.

I saturated it with epoxy and slipped a 3/4" long piece of heat shrink to the center. Using a piece of aluminum angle as a jig I stretched the sleeve tight. A heat gun applied to the heat shrink forced the excess epoxy away from the area where the webbing would go.

I used a squeeze grip clamp to flatten the "tail" and allowed the epoxy to cure. 

After curing I glued the "d-ring" to the sheer clamp, I had already reinforced the sheer clamp with a strip of uni tape.

Definitely a much more complicated approach than just screwing the webbing to the sheer clamp, but...  (insert justification here). 

Dave