AKA I’m not your Deckhand, or a Landshark.



Another friend recently dropped off a box FULL of Yakima saddles, and suddenly I have become the go-to guy for used saddles, cradles and rollers. In addition to the rollers I now have:

10 Yakima Mako saddles
4 Yakima Landshark saddles
4 Yakima Deckhand saddles

P9230022 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Most of those saddles have the mounting hardware, but I also have an assortment of extra hardware, and an odd number (3) of Yakima canoe gunwale stops.

P9230024 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Of course I am a Thule guy, and while I could adapt those Yakima parts to Thule square bars I don’t need any of them, our decked canoes are all sturdy enough to go on the racks coaming down.

The Mako’s run $89 a pair, the Landsharks $79 a pair, the Deckhands a whopping $146 a pair and the Hully Rollers $159 a pair. Dang it, I shouldn’t have totaled that up; all told that is $1531 at MSRP. Even at 50% off it rounds down to $765. Ethically I don’t like selling freebies, and I’m not shipping anything. What to do?

Fortunately I have canoe friends who are also sea kayakers, many of an age where some rack assistance with awkward-to-load hulls would be welcome.

Chip has a sea kayak or two, and a Transit van; he can have his pick of Hully Rollers for the rear crossbar and whatever saddles best fit the bow of his kayaks. Bill has sea kayaks and a 4WD pickup with a tall cap; an A.R.E cap, so it has Yakima round bars. I didn’t need to ask him twice.

Friend Steve, planning the purchase of a heavy decked canoe, will need a pair of rollers and a pair of saddles. I just checked; the Mako saddles, which are ill-fitting on many kayaks, have the perfect curvature for his future decked canoe.

We should be able to squeeze Eddie’s Rushton, or the Yellowstone Solo, plus his rec kayak or his sister’s Piccolo, on longer crossbars with the kayak in cradles. And I just happen to have a friend with excess get-em-outa-here giveaway 78” or 86” Yakima crossbars.

We measured the distance outside-edge to outside-edge between the side view mirrors on Eddie’s car. 84”. My crossbar theory is that if the bars don’t extend past the edge of the sideview mirrors they are “street legal”. Or at least I won’t be clipping signposts or pedestrians.

He will undoubtedly clonk his head on the overhang a few times, but that is a small price to pay for the ability to carry two boats.

Some open boater friends put giant trailer towing sideviews on to accommodate long crossbars on group self-shuttles. One group trip acquaintance showed up with eight foot long 2x4’s on his compact sedan. Pulled over by the local police it turned out he had an (unknown) warrant for unpaid tickets. Someone had to go bail him out; I would have, but I was following the ambulance, carrying a wasp stung and allergic friend, to the hospital.

But that is, yet again, another story. It was a helluva conclusion to a day padding trip.

I should have just enough rollers and saddles to outfit various friends. Thank goodness; they take up a lot of storage space.

Lesse, a proper price for used rollers and saddles I got for free is – grabs calculator – 0% of MSRP. Hoping this brings me good karma, or at least a warm fuzzy feeling.