Brought one of my Poke boats back from Florida on top of the car.  Used a foam pool noodle, cut in half crosswise, to raise the kayak up off the roof of the car and lashed it down with two tension webbing straps and tied down with small rope on front and back to cut down on any sideways movement.  Worked like a charm the entire 2000 miles and at 70 mph speeds.  Cost a whole $1.00 at the Dollar Tree.   

IC,

That's a great idea! I think you could do something similar with a canoe but not cut the Noodle.

My local Dollar Store is right next to a sporting goods store that has yearly kayak/canoe sales. Not top end ones, more economy fishing/family ones.

A guy  bought a sit-on-top fishing kayak and the sales "kid" was trying to help him figure away to get it home on his pick-up becasue he didn't have a rack?

Some kids came out of the Dollar store with those pool noodles and that sparked an idea for a cheap DYI carrier.

He had the sales kid go in and buy some 1/4 camping rope and he bought 2 noodles. He didn't split his, he cut 2 pieces of rope that would go around the bow/stern a few feet from each end. Tied a loop in one end and threaded the rope thru the hole in the noodle. Slipped the free end thru loop and slid it on each end of the kayak as it sat upright,on top of noodle and tied used a Trucker hitch to secure them.

They laid the kayak on roof and made a longer piece of rope the same way and threaded thru cab of truck behind the driver and snugged down with a Truckers hitch. Then he put bow/stern tie down ropes on.

When he got done I was coming out of the Dollar Store with a couple of noodles just to have handy. I told him that was a great temp idea until he got a rack. He said he liked it so much he's NOT getting a rack! Only change he said he would make is to buy one of those cam lock flat straps to cinch down from the side.

I think you could do a canoe with them that way too, except maybe use 2 on the rope or 1 1/2 depending how wide your canoe is. Only difference you haul the canoe the traditional way.

I saw a guy on the local lake in small aluminum fishing canoe as he was launching it where my brother and I were putting in his little fishing boat.
The guy had about a 1/2 noodle, slit lengthwise and
stuck on to the right gunnel just ahead of his seat.

I had to know so I asked and he said that when he's changing lure frequently rather than putting them back in tackle box or letting them lay on floor, he hangs them on the noodle. He said a 1/2 noodle would last all season.

I have a foot long piece in my under-seat bag and it works great.

We use the pipe insulation that looks like a smaller version of the pool noodle to pad the gunwales in the bow. If the bow paddler sits so their knees are always rubbing against the gunwales, the insulation really helps.

I never thought of the fishing lure idea. I like it.