Hello everybody,

I am new in this forum and I am posting from San Francisco Bay Area.

I have a 2013 Honda Fit base which I bought in March 2014 and have put 35,000 miles on it so far. I am very happy with this car, I would buy it again tomorrow.

I am thinking to buy a 11 ft 50 lbs boat which I would carry on the roof provided I buy a good roof rack as well. I cannot get a trailer to carry it because I don't have a place to keep it when not in use and cannot afford to rent it either.

Do you guys think would it be possible to carry it on my Fit or I have to renounce to the idea? I would use it every other week end and the trip would be less than 15 miles.

Thank you in advance for all your kind answers.

Fabio

 

so what kind of boat are we talking about? I often transport a 13 foot kayak on my roof (36 pounds IIRC). I have a nice thule rack and slide on kayak mount (I know there are a few pics up of it). It works out really well. I believe the roof if you have racks is rated to something like 80 pounds so as long as your weight estimate is right, you should meet specs.

I will bluntly say BEFORE you purchase any kind of boat, sort out what you need for racks, mounts and tie downs. I was naive and did the opposite and found the hardware to cost me significantly more than my boat (that was new and what I would consider to be a very nice model).

 

Size and weight should not be a problem.

I've carried a boat on top of a car (not a Fit) in the past quite a few times, using one of the kits with shaped foam blocks that fit on the gunnel of the boat (an aluminum john boat in my case, about 12' long and maybe 80ish pounds) and various ropes/straps to hold it on. It was very hard, practically impossible, to put on and off with one person, but otherwise worked out okay. You do need to scout out reasonable places to tie off the ends; the tow hook locations are not ideal as they are well off-center, and not really designed for a perpendicular load.

For the front, a little searching should bring up some pictures of a system some people have used where little loops of webbing are secured under the fender mounting bolts under the hood, and flipped up beside the hood to tie off a boat. It looks like a nice way of doing things to me.

I would not suggest going at freeway speeds, at least without a well-proven secure setup. Aerodynamic lift of an inverted boat can be substantial in some circumstances.

 

50 lbs? No problem on a rack. Directly on the roof might dent it, but not safety concerns.

Consider how to secure the ship. Tiedowns and tiedowns. Get comfortable with the setup before you go somewhere

What are we talking about anyway? A Sunfish weighs more than 50lbs, right?