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Ratchet straps are mixed blessing. If you don't have your car top bars, trailer bunks or truck bed well padded, it is possible to crank the ratchet straps down too hard and damage or crack the hull. I pad my car top bars with split foam pipe covers that any good hardware store offers. I cut them full length, Gorilla tape to the car top bars and then use ratchet straps judiciously with soft rope back-up tie downs. A "trucker's hitch" on the ropes lets you tie them very taut. Then after 20 miles or so, stop, get out and check the rig. For a car top rig, you will fine that the hull moves aft an inch or so in the 60+ mph widstream and the straps and ropes will be angled back a little - a good thing as this re-tightens the rig a little.
Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
Alan - Is that Apalachicola. Are you still there or back in NY?I agree with all of the above. At highway speeds, your "high bow" truck rig is going to generate a lot of stress on the hull and drag, OK if you are going only a few miles at low speeds, but not 100 miles at highway speeds. Here is my VW cartop rig that just completed a 1,200 mile trip from the Florida panhandle to Updstate NY - no problems and no damage to boat or car. Note redundant tie-downs, ratchet straps and rope.
Alan Glos View attachment 25322
rohrbeck,
Hey, you have a good eye! The photo was taken just west of downtown Apalachicola in early February of this year. I had just bought the boat up in the Florida panhandle and was on the way to Cedar Key for a few days of R&R and the best steamed clams money can buy (no sailing) Then it was a 1200 mile solo road trip back to Upstate NY, the longest I have ever car-topped a Sunfish. Made it in 2.5 days without incident.
Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY