[JP.in.VT]

I have a laser sailboat. It weighs 130 lbs. It is 14.5 feet long and about 4 feet wide. I've read through the trailer discussion, so it appears that a trailer might not be the best idea, so the only other place is on top of the car. Has anyone tried doing this? The bay I sail on is about 15 miles from my house and I'd drive no faster than 50 mph.
thanks,
JP

 

[Insightful Trekker]

Hi JP.in.VT and welcome to the forum :!:

IMO sounds a bit too heavy and roof wrinkling or at least paint damage may ocurr. But another member made a custom roof rack for his canoe and had no problems as reported so far. Its the weight of your rig that concerns me most. In anycase given your rig's requirements I doubt a "commercial" roof rack would be sufficient.

See:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sullivan/roofrack.html

Given the light weight of the Insight should a gust of wind unexpectedly hit you while transporting you may be doing some Insight "sailing". (not )

HTH!

 

[Dougie]

I think a trailer would be better. A lightweight trailer won't cause nearly as much trouble as a roof rack setup.

 

[JP.in.VT]

I'm pretty sure a Yakima or Thule rack will support a Laser.

Not that I'm game to try it just yet.
I do have a trailer for the laser.
It is rated at 1000lbs load capacity so it's a bit of overkill to have 130 lb boat on it.
I think the tongue weight is 100-150lbs.
I read another posting that said the aluminum frame of the Insight might make installing a tow hitch difficult.
anyone else have ideas?
If I can get the Insight to fly/sail with a boat on the roof I'll win the Nobel Prize in Science, and a stupid human trick prize on the Letterman show.

 

[Insightful Trekker]

Re: I'm pretty sure a Yakima or Thule rack will support a La

If I can get the Insight to fly/sail with a boat on the roof I'll win the Nobel Prize in Science, and a stupid human trick prize on the Letterman show.

lol :lol: I'll be watching for that show :!:

One member fabricated a trailerhitch for his Insight. But his tow "weight" was much less that you propose. Officially Honda does NOT recomend towing with the Insight. See:

Insight's " InsightPack"
(mini Trailer)
http://yves.fungiart.com/pages/trailer.htm


Hitch adapter
http://yves.fungiart.com/pages/hitch.htm

HTH!

 

[Dougie]

I bet the tongue weight is a lot less than that. I had a little boat trailer for with a Laser on it and the tongue weight was about 20 pounds. If it's really up in the 100 to 150 range then you are going to have a big problem with the rear suspension. It bottoms out too much just with a couple of people in it.

Borrow the SO's bathroom scale to measure the tongue weight...

 

[chrs]

Thanks, John, for the link to my roof rack. I haven't put anything heavier than about 60 lbs on it. I'd guess that it would be OK with 130 lbs., but I have no way to know what the roof can really take. I designed the rack after looking at pictures of the insight's frame, with the idea to put the weight where the frame is rather than on unsupported aluminum sheets. Based on nothing in particular, my gut feel is to be fully confident up to about 100 lbs and progressively more worried above that. If you pay me $0.02 for the design, I'll refund the $0.02 if your boat breaks the roof, but I won't buy you a new Insight.

Also, with two big sailors and some additional gear you might be overloading the suspension.

The trailer sounds like a better idea, but you do need to be willing to hack up the back of the car a bit, whereas the roof rack lets you proceed with zero modification of the car.

Charlie

 

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

I had a Laser and sailed it for many years, loved the boat. Switched to Windsurfing though since it was faster and more fun.
In my EV and air spring work under the rear of the Insight,I got quite familiar with under there.
I think that a trailer that was tied to the frame with a secure attachment as Yves did with his hitch would be much better than a roof rack. The balance of the boat position relitive to the wheels determines the tongue weight. As Dougie says there is no reason it has to be over 20 lbs, and at that weight, it is less weight on the rear than a bag full of can goods from the store. The trailor and Laser would fall into the shadow of the Insights wake with a trailor, for better drag reduction.
There is very little side force on the car when cornering with a trailor that is balanced well, and the pulling forces would transfer to the frame in it's strongest direction. On a roof rack, the 130 lbs way on top of our lightweight cars, would present both a much more substantial arodynamic drag. and much more tipping force in cornering, as the CG would move up. I would also worry about the wind effect that John mentioned, A good gust, and you could be on 2 wheels, and of course you would not be going sailing if there was no wind.