Kim and Geoff's Corner of the Web - Building an inexpensive boat bag

Building an inexpensive boat bag

	Kim and I bought a new car recently for her, the very cool Honda Fit and have been using it to drive to LA and back. One of the cool things is that my little surf boat fits inside, but since it's a new car, we want to keep it nice. Davenport Surf and Sails makes a super nice bag, but it's $200. So I decided to make an inexpensive version. I just wanted something to keep the car clean, and keep it from rubbing, etc.
	I bought 6 yards of heavy cotton cloth, 1/2 was "duck" cloth, 1/2 denim. And 6 yards of flannel. Total cost was less than $20. If you had a narrow boat, or could find wider cloth, then you might be able to use one piece folded in half, but my boat is too wide/tall.
	The only other supplies I used were the little d-rings, thread, and the quilters needles. I also used two old cam-straps and a cheap padded shoulder strap I had from an old bag. I put the boat on one piece of cloth. I put the side I wanted on the inside, down. I'd be sewing the bag inside out, then turning it.
	Then I draped the boat with the other piece of cloth. Both pieces are inside out right now.
	Then I began the somewhat tedious task of pinning the two halves together. From the front of the kayak to it's widest/tallest points, I kept it pinned and tapered pretty closely to the shape of the kayak. I didn't make it super, super tight. From the widest/tallest point, I went straight back. I didn't taper the back, since the kayak was going to slide in from the back, it had to be able to fit the tallest and widest points.
	More pinning. Due to the shape of the kayak, it's impossible to get all the wrinkles and bumps out, but I did what I could.
	After pinning, I trimmed the cloth. Then took the kayak out and stiched the sides together, and trimmed again. After checking the fit, I made a much simpler square bag out of the two halves of flannel fabric, and sewed it to the front of the exterior bag, and the back of the exterior bag.
	At the back, I used the exterior cloth, and wrapped it around the flannel, the stiched it together, so there would be no catching as I put the boat in and out. At this point it looked like a strangely shaped sleeping bag.
	I then used the two cam straps, I added a simple lenght of webbing, sewn to itself and to the bag, just forward of the cockpit. I also added a small D-ring to the loop. Just behind the cockpit, I did a similar thing, but used a cam strap with the cam attached, so I could tighten it after the boat is in the bag.
	At the back, I used two pieces of camstrap, one on the top and one on the bottom, sewn to the bag. I slide the boat in from the back, then fold the sides and back up to get as snug a fit as possible, then use the cam to lock everything in place.
	Clipping my shoulder strap to the two loops encircling the bag, I also end up with a decent carrying case. Not sure where I'd use it, but it might be nice. Maybe the trails and San Onofre? All told, <$20 spent, about 2 hours of work. My stiches aren't straight, and I'm sure my mom would do a nice job, but this was the first thing I've sewn in 15-20 years, so I feel pretty good.