You will need a set of roof bars, we should have a range available to fit your car that are suitable for carrying kayaks and canoes as well as other watersports gear - click here to select your car and see our range of roof bars. Once you have a set of roof bars you can either just strap your kayak onto the roof or use a specific kayak carrier to make things easier and ensure everything is secured down properly. You need to make sure whatever carrier you go for fits your bars and gear but you can use the filters at the top of the page to help with this, click here for details on our watersports carriers.
It's really important you secure your boat at the front and back of your car. You need to fix bow and stern lines, probably using the front and rear screw-in towing eyes if you have them on the car. Some kayak and boat carriers come supplied with these straps. We also have sets of straps available that are perfect for the job and are really easy to use. Yakima make some excellent Bow/Stern tie down straps and Thule makes the QuickDraw 838 . These straps usually attach to the front and rear screw-in towing eyes but if you don’t have these on your car you will need to attach them somewhere else instead. You could always use the ‘Yakima Hood Anchor’ if you don’t have towing loops on the vehicle. Hood Anchors secure under the bonnet or the boot.
We recommend when transporting kayaks, you use a cockpit cover to prevent the kayak being filled with water. If it rains, and a kayak fills with water, this weight can seriously overload the rack/car roof and also make dismounting very tricky. This is particularly important if using 'saddles' or a load assist carrier.
Don't forget the paddles! Accessories are available to help secure paddles on the roof bars, e.g. the Atera mast/paddle carrier, the Yakima Ace O' Spades and the Thule JawGrip.