PACKING AND SECURING GEAR IN A PAKCANOE 

I get a lot of questions about how to glue in D-rings to secure gear in PakCanoes. The answer is that you don't. Because of the foam floor and inflatable side tubes, there is no place inside a PakCanoe hull that a D-ring can be attached. The good news is that there is no need because the canoe frame offers a lot of convenient and secure attachment points. 

But let us back up to placing the gear: Folding canoes have fabric floors, and you need to pay some attention to how you place objects with hard pointed corners. If such a corner presses against the fabric floor, it will depress the floor at that point and abrasion will be concentrated right there. If a hard corner has to press against the fabric, you should insert something stiff and flat under the corner to spread the load. This solution is effective, but it is hardly ever needed. In almost all cases, gear can be placed so there are no corners to create abrasion sport. 

In general, distributing the load in a folding canoe is no different than in any other tripping canoe. You have to pay attention to balance and trim, and you may need to experiment a little at the start of the trip to get the load just right. Once you are satisfied, remember how the canoe is loaded, and load your gear the same way every day. The boat will be balanced just right - and you will notice if something is missing. 

Once you have your gear on board, you need to decide if and how to secure it. Some people prefer not to secure gear, reasoning that it is better to have gear floating free than to loose all of it if the boat is pinned in an inaccessible spot. Others disagree. My own feeling is that it depends. You can probably make the right decision if you can predict what kind of problem you will run into. 

Assuming that you decide to secure your gear, I have one strong opinion about how you do it. Gear is much less dense than water, and it will float. If the gear is properly secured in the canoe, it will also add a lot of flotation to the canoe. "Proberly secured" means that the stuff stays inside the hull on the bottom of the canoe if you swamp. I have seen large center flotation bags "secured" to the thwarts just at the 4 corners. Two of those canoes swamped one memorable weekend on the Dead River in Maine. The canoes sank, and the flotation bags stayed on the surface. Both canoes rammed submerged boulders and were severely damaged, but the flotation bags were fine. That is not what I mean by "properly secured".

PakCanoe frames offer multiple attachment points for gear. Run your ropes under the cross ribs at the bottom level of the canoes so the gear stays firmly anchored to the bottom. If you use this method, I recommend that you use plastic wire ties to reinforce the latches securing the cross ribs. No other precaution should be needed. Do not run your ropes under the longitudinal rods. This would cause "bumpouts" in the bottom and create abrasion spots. You want the canoe bottom to be as smooth as possible.