This Oru Beach has added weight capacity and room for my dog. And weighs 28lbs and folds down small. Might be a winner!
car toppable or inflatable dog-friendly small watercraft advice sought
- Thread starter Zak
- Start date
I wish I could bring my cardigan out with me! Sadly she's not good with wobbly watercraft and she barks like its going out of style if she can't get to me which I imagine is what will happen if I'm in the river and she's on the shore.
If you can lift your existing boat waist high I wonder if a Yakima Showdown rack might be a solution. My sister used one for her sea kayak until she was 81.
yakima.com
ShowDown
The first load-assist mount to handle both SUPs and kayaks, makes loading and unloading heavy boats and boards a breeze. The lightweight mount tilts down more than two feet from the roof rack, takes on up to 45% of the boat's weight, then helps gently raise it up to the top of the vehicle. Once...
yakima.com
Interesting idea!If you can lift your existing boat waist high I wonder if a Yakima Showdown rack might be a solution. My sister used one for her sea kayak until she was 81.
ShowDown
The first load-assist mount to handle both SUPs and kayaks, makes loading and unloading heavy boats and boards a breeze. The lightweight mount tilts down more than two feet from the roof rack, takes on up to 45% of the boat's weight, then helps gently raise it up to the top of the vehicle. Once...
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I did some white water kayaking, but never used one for fishing.
Rigby is 65lbs, still maybe too big to fit behind the seat. He's pretty chill until I have a fish on, then wants to get his mouth on it.
Sounds like your boat is good; it's the trailer you want to ditch, but only sometimes. I was going to suggest something similar to the above, but much more redneck. Maybe you could mount a trailer winch to the roof in your garage (or someplace else that lets you crank from above car level). Should be easy to winch a 75-lb. boat on to your Forester. You'd probably need something to function as a low-friction fulcrum (like what a roller on the back of a driftboat trailer does) to avoid scratching the hell out of your rig, but again, with 75 lbs., you could probably get away with something super low-tech like a couple of old pillows.
Depending on angles, you might be able to devise a way to load the boat from your trailer on to the roof with a system like that. That would reduce the torque in the system and make things smoother and safer.
This is probably just the sort of idea a guy sitting in his easy chair, not looking at the boat, trailer, and car in question would come up with, and it probably won't work as proposed. Just planting the seed that there might be a low-cost solution to keep the boat you like, protect your back, and (most importantly) avoid the expense of a new boat that you might not like as much as the one you have.
Also on the topic of expense, any new boat that meets your needs is likely to cost at least $2K. That's a lot of trailered trips to Whidbey, even at $47 a pop (which I must agree seems absurd; I can see where the principle alone is problematic).
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Note that it is $47 each way with the trailer, so nearly $100 to go there and back, which just sticks in my craw.
What water craft are you fishing from?
I'd like to know more about that and would appreciate it!
A fishing friend set up a simple roller rack on the roof of his old Volvo wagon for a 9' lightweight pram.
He used Yakima round bars with Yak kayak tie-downs on them, the back rack sleeved with aluminum tubing between the tie-downs. He'd unstrap the pram, slide it backwards and down until the stern was on the ground, pull the bow over and then just skid drag it to the water, never picking it up. When time to reload, he'd position the boat leaning on the rear bar and then slowly pull it forward from the front with a rope tied to the bow eye until on the roller and continue to pull until until seated between the tie-downs.
He used Yakima round bars with Yak kayak tie-downs on them, the back rack sleeved with aluminum tubing between the tie-downs. He'd unstrap the pram, slide it backwards and down until the stern was on the ground, pull the bow over and then just skid drag it to the water, never picking it up. When time to reload, he'd position the boat leaning on the rear bar and then slowly pull it forward from the front with a rope tied to the bow eye until on the roller and continue to pull until until seated between the tie-downs.
Have you thought about building one? I built this from a very rough kit that was available long ago from the now defunct Wooden Boat shop that used to exist on Boat Street in Seattle. They called it the Lake Union Skiff. It weighs around 45 lbs. and is 8’ long with plenty of space forward of the seat for your dog. It’s also very stable, being a skiff with the flat bottom. There’s probably similar plans online and it would be a satisfying winter project if you have the space to build one.
That is a beautiful boat!