As you may notice from the number of posts we make from locations near lakes, streams, and the ocean – we love the water. We've both enjoy a variety of water-related activities including sailing, kayaking, fishing, and general exploring.
Unfortunately, towing an Airstream precludes towing a boat trailer, so getting ourselves, our trailer, and a boat to our destination requires car-topping the boat.
We therefore set about choosing the biggest, most versatile boat that we could reasonably car-top while towing the Airstream. Hobie has a new 2-person sail/kayak called the Tandem Island (OK, I think it's really called the "Hobie Mirage Adventure Island Tandem" but seriously, that's WAY too many words for one little boat.) The Tandem Island (or "TI" as we will now refer to it), is an 18 foot sit-on-top kayak. For power, it has conventional paddles (which we never use), a really awesome pedal system called the "Mirage Drive" (which can easily propel the boat at a sustained 4-5 MPH with two people pedaling at a nice comfortable pace), and an 18-foot mast with a 90 square foot sail (that's the super-fun part). To stabilize the boat while under sail, there are also two outriggers (called "amas" and metal booms called "akas" that connect the amas to the main hull. The result is basically a small trimaran with pedal power for when the wind dies.
Car-topping the boat was a bit of a challenge. We put three Yakima cross-bars on top of our F150 truck – one on the cab and two on the built-in rack on the SnugTop XTR camper shell. First, we tried using standard kayak saddles and rollers to load and manage this heavier-than-normal kayak.
Nope.
Yakima's "Hully Roller" system may work great on light boats, but on ours it wouldn't hold the weight. The rollers lost their grip on the bar, rolled backward, and proceeded to dent the hull of the boat. (We pretty much fixed that with a blow-drier and a little pressure and patience, but that's another story). We ended up getting the Hobie cradles that are a custom fit for the bottom of the boat (originally intended to be mounted on a trailer) and mounted them to the front two cross-bars. The back cross-bar has a pad, and is only used during the loading process. We put the nose of the boat onto the pads on the rear cross-bar, then slide it forward until it drops onto the two cradles. Then we attach the amas and akas after the fact, strap the whole thing down, and add bow and stern tiedowns (very important if you don't want your boat ending up in someone's back seat after a panic stop or an accident.)
With the boat on top and the trailer on back, we cannot tell any difference in the towing, handling, or gas mileage. The boat stays secure and is relatively easy to load and unload. We're very happy with the whole operation.
(posted by Kevin)
Just about to buy a new TI. Been researching car topping. So far, I like your idea best.
What kind of cross bars are you using? How did you attach the cradles? Any chance of some close up photos?
Thank you for the article.
Hi Mike,
You’ll love the TI – it’s wonderful!
We are using standard Yakima cross bars. We got the cradles from Hobie – they’re the ones designed to be used on a trailer. They have 3 mounting holes drilled through the bottom. We used standard Yakima bar grips – 3 per cradle. We dropped the bolt through the pre-drilled hole in the cradle and put the bar grip on the bottom. We didn’t have to modify anything. Works like a charm.
We hold it all down with 2 regular Yakima tie down straps, plus a Yakima bow/stern tie down kit. We loop the straps under the rack, around the amas and the hull, and make a loop around the mast with each one to hold that in place. Don’t over-tighten the bow/stern lines as it can de-form the hull against the racks.
Thank you for the response. I will be hauling this on top of a Suburban. Plenty of room. Considering bolting heavy duty Unistrut to the rails with SS U bolts and bolting the cradles to the Unistrut. I may buy a Thule Goal Post for loading/unloading.
Can’t wait to get it. Just watching the TI on Youtube is fun.
Also ready to buy a TI, also have an Airstream, also have a truck with a camper shell. Your article hits me right in the wheelhouse. Awesome! One question though. Where did you find that awesome launching/parking/kayaking location? It looks perfect.
Hi Art!
That location is Skamokawa Vista Park on the Washington side of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest…one of our favorite local spots!
-Laura
Thanks Laura, I have booked marked that spot. We often stop at Anacortes on our way to Canada so we will hive to add that to our itinerary. Happy sailing.
Art