Stable car top boat?

Hi. I'm trying to find a good car top boat to use for fishing small and
medium sized lakes. I've searched through newsgroups but I'm still
confused about what would be the best choice. Here's what I'm looking
for:

1. Portability-- Sometimes I'll be using the boat alone so I'd like to
be able to lift it myself and car top it. I don't want to trailer it.

2. Stability-- The more stable the better. I'll be using it on some
medium sized lakes that are occasionally choppy. A canoe would not be
great. It would be nice to be able to stand and fish, but not crucial.

3. Other-- Would like to be able to use a small outboard (like 7hp) and
a trolling motor. The boat should be able to hold 2 people and gear.
Ideally, it would be somewhat comfortable.

A jon boat or a plastic boat like the Coleman Crawdad look like
possibilities, but I'm not sure if there are better options (like a
small v-hull?) given that the water may not always be calm.

I understand that the perfect boat for these conditions may not
exist...

Any ideas appreciated!

Mike

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi. I'm trying to find a good car top boat to use for fishing small and
medium sized lakes. I've searched through newsgroups but I'm still
confused about what would be the best choice. Here's what I'm looking
for:

1. Portability-- Sometimes I'll be using the boat alone so I'd like to
be able to lift it myself and car top it. I don't want to trailer it.

Jon Boat. If you have a pickup a plastic bass hunter you can side int he
back maybe. Easiest to load and unload... probably a canoe.



2. Stability-- The more stable the better. I'll be using it on some
medium sized lakes that are occasionally choppy. A canoe would not be
great. It would be nice to be able to stand and fish, but not crucial.

To stand and fish with some you can hand load yourself, you would be limited
to one of tyhe plastic bass boats. I stand and fish out of a jon boat, but
mine could never be loaded on a car top. I barely got it ont he trailer
when I bought it. If you don't mind sitting a wide beam lake canoe might be
an answer. I have one of those I got from my dad, and haven't experienced
anything I could nopt handle with it as long as I took appropriate
precautions. If that is not stable enough for you there are a couple
outrigger type stabilizer kits out there for canoes.


3. Other-- Would like to be able to use a small outboard (like 7hp) and
a trolling motor. The boat should be able to hold 2 people and gear.
Ideally, it would be somewhat comfortable.

Not able to run a 7 on any canoes I am aware of. Maybe not even on a jon
that you can cartop easily. Also, the Coleman crawdad I think has a 5hp
limit. From what I am hearing or not hearing in your post about load,
stability, and fishability you would probably want to look at a 5HP Briggs
and a boat like the Coleman Crawdad. As a plastic boat hough I would be a
little leary of cartopping it for fear of making it sag and indent from its
own weight on the roof racks. Perhaps if you put a piece of plywood up
there to support the whole boat.


A jon boat or a plastic boat like the Coleman Crawdad look like
possibilities, but I'm not sure if there are better options (like a
small v-hull?) given that the water may not always be calm.

There are some nice fishing boats that I really like, but the price starts
to go up and the ability to cartop them disappears. I really like the look
of the WaterQuest 11.3, but the best price I have found for it is a little
over $2000. It would also handle the bigger outboard you are looking at. I
would not try to cartop it though. I'ld buy a small short bunk jon boat
trailer for it, and maybe modify it with some bigger bunks to better support
the boat.

I understand that the perfect boat for these conditions may not
exist...

You are right. There is no such thing as the perfect boat. I have several
watercraft, and I still always seem to want one more. LOL.

Any ideas appreciated!

There are mine. Good luck.


--
Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com

.....Huck offered up another option.
http://www.porta-bote.com/
http://tackletour.com/reviewportabote.html
.....maybe a little pricey @ $1800 for the 14' er from Cabela's.

Hi. I'm trying to find a good car top boat to use for fishing small and
medium sized lakes.

Hi. I'm trying to find a good car top boat to use for fishing small and
medium sized lakes.


Your not loading a crawdad on top of a car by yourself, and if you are, you
will need to lean it on the trunk and slide it on up. Trust me :-)

But it is a good boat, I've had mine for two seasons now and love it. The
problem is the 12 footer I have has a 450 max weight capacity and if your
anything like me 100 pounds of that is soft plastiiic.

Stability wise it's great, I fish with my buddy Dave all the time and we
both stand up and have never had any problems. Of course when I hit the
trolling motor on full and Dave crashs to the ground landing on random
crankbaits, spinnerbaits and knocking his coffee over, well heck that;s just
a bonus cause it's always funny

Part of what makes a boat a "car topper" is the process used to load it. I
used to load and unload a 17-foot Grumman aluminum canoe by myself. 75
pounds isn't too much to handle, but it's difficult to reach out, keep
everything balanced, and keep from scraping the car while trying to load it
from the side.

There are probably commercial versions of this, but the home-made end-load
roller support I built worked fine, so I'll describe it he

Build or buy a rack that includes a sturdy tubular horizontal support rod,
like a length of galvanized pipe. Before attaching the two end supports,
slide the pipe inside a length of PVC pipe that has been wrapped with
outdoor/boat deck carpet. Drill a vertical hole (just slightly larger than
the shaft of a double-head nail) through the PVC and galvanized pipe, and
mark both ends with a felt-tip marker to help you line up the holes. Shorten
the double-head nail so it drops through the holes in the pipes, but won't
be long enough to scratch the car top.

When mounted (and the nail is removed) you have a rolling car-top support.
This works real well on hatch-back vehicles, VW vans, etc that don't have a
long trunk sticking out the rear of the vehicle.

Just prop the bow of the upturned boat on the roller/support. Then lift the
stern and roll the whole thing forward. When it's in position, rotate the
PVC pipe until the holes are aligned and drop the nail in place to jam the
roller. Strap everything down, and you're pretty much set.

This works real well for a canoe. It would probably be fine for a 10-foot
jon boat or Coleman Crawdad. I don't think I'd try it with a molded boat
like the Bass Hunter, though.

Joe

---------------------
"Alwaysfishking" wrote in message
...

Hi. I'm trying to find a good car top boat to use for fishing small and
medium sized lakes.


Your not loading a crawdad on top of a car by yourself, and if you are, you
will need to lean it on the trunk and slide it on up. Trust me :-)

But it is a good boat, I've had mine for two seasons now and love it. The
problem is the 12 footer I have has a 450 max weight capacity and if your
anything like me 100 pounds of that is soft plastiiic.

Stability wise it's great, I fish with my buddy Dave all the time and we
both stand up and have never had any problems. Of course when I hit the
trolling motor on full and Dave crashs to the ground landing on random
crankbaits, spinnerbaits and knocking his coffee over, well heck that;s just
a bonus cause it's always funny