Cable Lock

This is a cable-lock I made, about 12 feet long. It is just 3/16" coated steel cable from the hardware store, with crimp ferrules, and a big steel ring in one end. The ferrules fit through the scupper holes on the boat, but the steel ring does not. Together with any padlock, this will secure the boat (or several) to your truck, roof rack, a tree, or anything else that is handy. You can take this cable with you, it will give you peace of mind if you leave the boat unattended to go exploring on land.

The object is not to stop a determined thief - you can't do that. It is to stop someone from casually taking your boat with their bare hands. Don't lock the boat by the handles - they are easily cut with a pocket knife and cheap to replace. Run the cable through a scupper hole, and a thief would have to destroy the boat to steal it. If your boat doesn't have scupper holes, you can probably find someplace to thread the cable though, or make a suitable hole in the seat.

You can find a cable like this all set to go on Amazon for under 20 bucks. Where I used a steel ring, you could use a second padlock.


Paddlin' in the Pines
( 39.72215, -74.42738 )

  1. Batsto Lake - Batsto ( 39.64682, -74.65327 )
  2. Batsto River - Wharton State Forest ( 39.71014, -74.66747 )
  3. Cedar Creek - Berkeley ( 39.90248, -74.24513 )
  4. Cedar Creek - Lanoka Harbor ( 39.86936, -74.17065 )
  5. Great Egg Harbor River - Penny Pot ( 39.57547, -74.82239 )
  6. Great Egg Harbor River - Weymouth ( 39.51339, -74.77889 )

This map shows the trips described in this article.
Hover over marker for name.

by Andrée Jannette

New Jersey Outdoors
Spring 1998
$4.25

If you don't know how to turn your canoe on a dime when you put in at your first Pinelands river, you will by the time you finish. These are narrow, winding rivers, full of sweeping curves and sharply angled switchbacks. Yet these twists and turns are very much a part of the mystique and the delight of paddling in New Jersey's Pinelands.

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