: 43" doesn't sound too bad. I've carried two doubles on a rack with
: shorter
: spacing than that, and I'll admit it was frightening and 50 mph was the
: limit ... but nothing went wrong :-)

: But with a bit wider spacing, it all becomes a lot easier. IMHO, the critical
: thing is the position of the front bar, and the legality of overhanging the
: boat at the rear of the car. In the UK you must add a flag to the back (or
: a red light at night) if the load overhangs by a metre or more, so I always
: try to put boats on avoiding that much overhang. The issue is then that the
: front bar needs to be forward of the balance point of the boat, otherwise
: the boat just wants to drop onto the bonnet (US: hood).

: With the rack that came with the car, the TOTAL load is not meant to exceed
: 75 kg. Two doubles weighed 73 kg, but to get them to balance I had to have
: almost all the weight on the front bar, and tie down at the back, which added
: extra load. Yuck. Threw that rack away and used a much stronger home-made one
: (using all eight M6 bolt attachments to the roof, not just four). That coped
: fine with two doubles and two singles (with spraydecks, buoyancy aids and
: similar bulky kit inside), for a total load of about 140 kg. Loading the
: doubles onto the roof on my own in a force nine crosswind (interrupted by
: having to chase after a carbon paddle blowing across the campsite...) was
: entertaining, but once the boats were on, the whole thing was solid and we
: drove several hundred miles home...

: Moral: build your own rack to cope with the load.

: Personally, I hate having a tie down rope blocking my view through the
: windscreen, so I never use end tie-downs, and have not had any problem with
: the boats lifting at speeds up to about 85 mph. I've carried a big 18' open
: boat at 100 (upside down) and 90 in a crosswind (on its edge, with several
: kayaks adding weight to the roof). Basically you build up slowly to these big
: loads and high speeds, watching and checking the security as you push the
: envelope, and find your own comfort limits...

: The pic here shows a double (white, right), the open boat with a kayak
: inside,
: another plastic river kayak, and a sea single on the roof, with three plastic
: river boats inside. This all felt quite secure and avoided needing to tow my
: trailer as well. The rack spacing can't have been much different from your
: 43".
: I've made rack extensions for my new car, so I can get six boats on the roof
: (which we did to drive across Europe and back - no problems:)

: Andy

You're much more brave than I am

Bill H.