I still don’t understand what exactly was the failure mode experienced by Kirk. Sounds like it was whatever is analogous to your Q-towers. Could these separate from the roof? How can one assure that these are “absolutely rock solid”? I attach my Thule cross bars to the factory roof rails, and I don’t know if the roof rails themselves could separate from the roof, though they also feel “absolutely rock solid”. I don’t know how likely the Q-towers are to fail. On Sep 16, 2014, at 9:09 AM, Victor Okunev <venuko_at_gmail.com> wrote: > I've been using the Y-shaped Yakima drydock rack > (http://www.yakima.com/shop/water/truck/drydock) on my 4Runner to > carry the aft of my enormous Current Designs Libra XT for many years > with great success. The bow resides on the Q-Towers-roof-mounted > Yakima crossbar. The kayak is situated on the Yakima Mako saddles and > secured with the Riverside Heavy Duty Utility Straps from REI. This > setup is absolutely rock solid, it handles 120km/h on the hwy as well > as some really gnarly logging roads on the Vancouver Island without a > single problem, fingers crossed. > > On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 12:42 PM, Kirk Olsen <kork4_at_cluemail.com> wrote: >> So last saturday I had an ugly start to the weekend. >> >> I was headed to Norwalk Connecticut for the lighthouse to lighthouse >> race - my current favorite race of the season. >> Skippers meeting was 8:30 AM, with an estimated drive time of slightly >> under 3 hours. I left home at 5, driving my wife's Prius, picking up a >> friend at 5:30. On the roof was my Epic V12 Ultra and my paddling >> partner had a borrowed Epic V8 Ultra. >> >> At 6:00 we were in Framingham Mass, chugging along on the Mass Pike at >> about 70 MPH. I heard a slight thud, looked forward, then in the >> rearview mirror and saw the sterns of the boats. I hit the brakes and >> pulled over, with another thump as I started to pull over. >> >> The roof rack had come off the car, first the front rack , then with the >> wind resistance the back rack was forced backwards, and peeled off as >> the 'door hooks' left the door frame and went into the indent along the >> windows behind the door. >> >> About 75 yards back the boats and the rack were in the breakdown lane - >> avoiding any impact with the few other cars, or large trucks, on the >> road. We jogged back down the road to see what happened. The V8's >> damage was a 1 to 2 inch chunk out of the gelcoat in the bow - all >> gelcoat, the fabric wasn't even exposed. The V12 didn't fare as well. >> From the damage it looks like the boats flipped in the air, so that the >> rack was above the boats, and the assembly ground into the pavement on >> top of the bow on the V12 and the end of one roof rack bar. As the >> boats and rack slowed down there was a small scuff to the front of the >> coaming, and behind the cockpit the deck line was severed, leaving a >> minor scuff (amazing that a deck line avoided more damage) and then the >> stern slapped into the guard rail. There's structural damage to the >> boat, in the final 2 feet of the stern. >> >> We gave up on going to the race, sniff, and drove home on back roads, >> never getting about 50 MPH. >> >> I've found a custom boat builder to do the repair work - his comment >> after looking at it - "no big deal". >> >> The V12 has no holes or handles and nothing to tie anything to outside >> of the cockpit. So after 12+ years of driving around with surf skis >> which have no way to attach a bow tie down, I'll be finding a way... >> >> $1500 damage to my wife's prius. She's not happy with me... >> >> Later on the ugly day, I took my Mako 6 out for a paddle in Essex MA. >> My paddling partner commented I was faster on the beat up mako 6 than I >> was on the V12 (prior to damaging it). Depending on the post repair >> feel of the V12 I may sell it and return to being an Epic paddler. For >> the time being I've got an Epic V10L ultra on loan. If anyone here >> weighs less than 165 pounds and likes a lively boat the V10L is good >> fun... I'm a bit big/heavy for it at 6 foot and 172 pounds. >> >> -- >> Kirk Olsen *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Sep 16 2014 - 09:27:12 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:47 PDT