Cartopping Sunfish In Reality--for Smaller Folks

I've seen the sunfish cartopping threads. It theorizes alot, but dosn't give any practical advice for cartopping if you're a 115lbs female.

I'd really like to cartop alone...even if I'm not cartopping alone my friends aren't much bigger than I am.

Trailers seem exorbinatly expensive $500+ even on craigslist plus I'd need a towar. Seeing as I got the boat for free I'm trying to keep my costs down.

I have a 10 yr old Saab 9-5 4-door. I was thinking a THULE rack with a sliding ladder system of 2x4 to load off the boot.

S's are sunfish.


...~+---+
_4TTTT\_
[-o----o---] ssssss

................s
......+---+ ..s
_4TTTT\_ \ s
[-o----o---] \ s <---two by fours but at a better angle :)


Final product

..sssssssssss
.....+---+
_4TTTT\_
[-o----o---] = puttttttputttttt
 
Haha excellent drawings.

I've never cartopped, but here's my experience with how I hauled it- I hauled my sunfish last summer upside down in the bed of my truck. I used a bed extender thing (see pic below) to help with it overhanging so much. To load it, I would back my truck up to the water on the beach and flip the boat over. I would lift one end onto the bed extender, and then go lift the other end and slide it in the truck. Not too hard but it was a workout.

To unload I would do the opposite. Slide it out until I could rest one end on the ground. I would then lift the other end and swing it off the truck. Then I would flip it upright. This is what got me in trouble. I slipped a couple times while rolling it over, and it hit the sand pretty hard coming down upright. This caused the bottom of the hull to hit the cockpit and give me some nasty cracks on the bottom. So be very careful flipping your boat over. Don't let it fall, lower it slowly.

I hated hauling like this and I'm a 220 lb college age guy. ie I'm not a tiny old man or something. It was a pain and caused me to damage my boat. Also I DREADED loading and unloading after a long day on the lake.


I bought a trailer for this season. It's a trailer for like a Jon boat or other small boat, but I'm making it work for my sunfish. I got it for $100 on craigslist and have maybe $250 in it total. (I had to get a tire, lights, coupling, safety chains, wood and carpet for bunks, and a handful of bolts). The point is, trailers can be had at decent prices and are way more pleasant to use.

You could even get something like this http://www.harborfreight.com/600-lb-capacity-boat-trailer-with-8-inch-wheels-and-tires-5002.html just budget about $50 or so for new bunks. Say $15 for wood, $10 for carpet, and the rest for some angle iron and bolts to attach your new brackets. I wouldn't trust a harbor freight trailer for a cross country trip, but I would trust it for local sailing. Heck my lights, coupler, and safety chains are from harbor freight.

Pic of what I hauled on:
photo-119.jpg
 
Also- a truck bed is lower than the top of a car by a good bit. I would hate to have to put it on a car.

And you can print out a 20% off harbor freight coupon (google it) and get a nice chunk off their trailers.
 
Although a trailer may seem expensive, it does add value once you want to sell your freebie fish.
My mother used to tell me 'Penny wise, Pound foolish'; and she was right most of the time.

A trailer will make your sailing life SO much easier, and your back won't mind either.
 
I have cartopped for years and like it. Your system should work. I have seem homebuilt rigs like you describe. Some load over the hood, and some over the trunk - depends on the car's configuration as to what is best. That said, a trailer could be worth the money - it will speed up your launching and leaving. You could try the cartopping and if you hate it, but a trailer. But the Thule stuff is not cheap, and you could use what you would be spending on that as part of the trailer payment. BB
 
got a utility trailer so I can toss my kayak on...or a friend's....the sunfish is such a small boat its hard to convince anyone but the kids to join me.
 
I hated hauling like this and I'm a 220 lb college age guy. ie I'm not a tiny old man or something. It was a pain and caused me to damage my boat. Also I DREADED loading and unloading after a long day on the lake.

Owning a trailer is like paying rent. :confused: Cartopping assures a better ride for the Sunfish, but the rig you use atop your car—or in the truck bed—makes all the difference.
Maybe the small-sailboat market is ready for a carbon-fiber Sunfish! ;)
 
Been there done that (car topping): try for a used trailer to cut the cost. It will be well worth it.
Car topping gets old very fast.

Fred
 
When I was younger, I used to car top an old Sunfish on a VW Rabbit. It worked, but it was a royal pain in the stern.
Face it, the Sunfish, even at 130 lbs minimum weight, is difficult to load and unload off a roof rack. In about 1980I bought a Sears Roebuck 4' x 4' feet utility trailer kit, assembled it in a few hours and added a longer tongue. 30+ years later, it is still going strong and when not hauling my 'fish, it is a very useful utility trailer that I use weekly. Harbor Freight sells an inexpensive trailer frame that many Sunfish sailors have adapted to transport their toy of choice easily and and at modest cost.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 
I've seen the sunfish cartopping threads. It theorizes alot, but dosn't give any practical advice for cartopping if you're a 115lbs female.

I'd really like to cartop alone...even if I'm not cartopping alone my friends aren't much bigger than I am.

Trailers seem exorbinatly expensive $500+ even on craigslist plus I'd need a towar. Seeing as I got the boat for free I'm trying to keep my costs down.

I have a 10 yr old Saab 9-5 4-door. I was thinking a THULE rack with a sliding ladder system of 2x4 to load off the boot.

S's are sunfish.


...~+---+
_4TTTT\_
[-o----o---] ssssss

................s
......+---+ ..s
_4TTTT\_ \ s
[-o----o---] \ s <---two by fours but at a better angle :)


Final product

..sssssssssss
.....+---+
_4TTTT\_
[-o----o---] = puttttttputttttt

Love the drawings. I have a 2x4 ladder system like what you propose to get my Sunfish up and down the bank to the pond. It is 16 feet in length and goes up at about a 30 degree angle from the ground. It requires a surprising amount of force either to push or to pull the boat up this arrangement, so I can't necessarily recommend it for cartopping (I think you would quickly come to hate it). $500 plus may sound like a lot of money for a trailer, but in the long run it will probably save you at least that much in medical bills, x-rays, chiropractor visits, etc, to say nothing of making boating easier, more accessible and more fun. My vote is for the trailer.
 
Got a trailer from Harbor Freight. There's one about 20 mi from me. It's nice...and since it comes with a title and VIN I just needed to get a plate...$6. Way awesome.
 
If you got the boat trailer make sure to rework the bunks so it won't trash your boat. The roller that the bow is supposed to sit on will punch right through a sunfish.
 

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