hauling two boats

[davebrown]

i am launching my version of a whisp this saturday. i want to haul my skerry and my new skiff. i have a trailer rated for about 1000 pounds. the skerry weighs about 120 and the whisp about 100 or so. add a mast and a few other items, and we have another 30 lbs or so, well under the trailer rating. question is this: can i haul the two boats one atop the other, like the old nesting dories from the old days? my brother, who used to be a jet aircraft mechanic and is more educated than me at these things, says the lower boat (the skerry) will not be harmed to carry the whisp. i say it's a bad idea, and i might rent a truck, since i don't have a vehicle to put the boat on top of. i envision a pothole knocking the hell out of both of them...

watchya think?

[DGentry]

Not a problem. Just make sure there's no wood-to-wood contact between the two (rolled up towels work) and that there's no play in the straps holding them together.
I've transported plenty of boats this way. Errr . . . gunwale to gunwale, not nested. One will overlap the other at the bow.

Good luck!
Dave

Edited to say: Of course, these are lightly built boats. I like Thorne's idea about just cartopping the Whisp.

[Thorne]

Remember that the hull is designed to support your weight while floating in water, not to support lots of weight balanced on the gunwales while bouncing on the roadway.

Folks wiser than me will talk about the forces of compression, shear, etc -- but in simple terms, I think you'll regret it unless you build separate support structures for each boat (like the multiple kayak trailers).

Why not cartop the whisp? I'm usually not a fan of cartopping anything nice (having hauled canoes that way several thousand miles), but the whisp is designed to be light and there should be enough bodies to safely load and unload, right?

[Ron Paro]

I think that your brother is right... provided that you place some foam or other type of padding between the two hulls to protect from scratching, and that the hulls are snugly strapped to the trailer and one-another so that when you go over a bump, everything moves in unison. Should be fine.

[py]

Quite common here for small boat trailers to have a frame, which allows one boat to be carried over the other-supported on the frame. I'd not much like to have one boat just nested in the other though. Certainly wouldn't do it with aircraft:)

[David G]

Your vehicle won't accommodate one of them on top?

Here's how I do my small two:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t4/auroradan/Timothy%20Lake%202008/PICT3026.jpg?t=1247805380

[BobW]

Where are you launching?

Bob

[Woxbox]

Absolutely not a problem. The Whisp is so light, there's nothing to worry about as long as you check any chance of abrasion, as everyone else has pointed out.

These epoxy/ply boats are far more rugged than they appear to be. I remember a pram flying off the roof of our station wagon when I was a kid. I was sitting in the back facing backwards and saw it sail off the roof and bounce and skid on the highway. Damage? One corner a bit crunched, but we put it back on the roof, and continued on to our vacation. The boat worked just fine and the repairs later were only cosmetic.

[davebrown]

thanks for all the replies. as i said, i think i am closest to thorne on this one. bob, we are launching up at pinecrest lake near dodge ridge ski resort. if you are in the area, stop by. you can't miss us: we're the likely only pair of wooden boats. as for whisp, i overbuilt it. envision a narrower, 16 ft version of culler's good little skiff, and you have my whisp. i think it is a bloatsome (that's a new boatbuilding word) 110-ish. i need to stop being cheap and buy a top rack for my suv. but i have one of those german monstrosities for which you must go directly to the ogres, i mean dealers, to get the simplest thing. so you generally leave missing a limb or two. i believe i will cartop it.

[BobW]

Dave-

Good luck with your launch tomorrow. As much as I'd like to break away to come watch, I'm going to stay home and work on my boat. I need to put as much time into it if I'm going to get it done by mid-September.

I'll look forward to pictures - and a description of Pinecrest Lake (never been there).

Have fun!

Bob

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

You have a trailer sprung for 1000 lb. and a load at 300 lb. or less. The boats will be subjected to a harsh ride because there isn't enough weight to compress the springs. I say carrying one on top of the other is a risky idea unless you have some shock absorbing material between the two.

[John Meachen]

Have a look here http://freespace.virgin.net/trailer.sales/dinghy_multi_range.html for ideas.

[Bill Huson]

Only two? Back in my racing days we hauled four (4) boats - stacked three deep with a pair on the top rails. Two more end to end on the van roof. Had eight outboard engines in the box at the tail end of the trailer.

The boats were racked on a frame. A simple hoop of 1x2 tube steel with 2x4 carpeted wood rails attached about two apart. But we did occasionally stack a boat on top of another boat. Pool noodles work great for padding!