best way to tie boat to trailer.

We are probably going sailing Saturday in Narragansett Bay, RI which is two hours away of mostly interstate driving. Until now I have only trailered the boat locally. I have a ratchet strap over the hulls near each pylon tied to the trailer and a bungee around the mast and tied to the mast support and another one at the back to hold the mast from bouncing. Is this sufficient for highway driving? What speed should I stay under? Any other advice?
The previous owner said he repacked the wheel bearings recently, but I will check them just to be sure.

Jim, not 100% sure we are going, but if we do I'll see you there.

I strongly discourage any tie-downs that contact the hull. It's the source of stress cracks in the deck lip you see on many boats.

The best type of tie downs are the ones that go from the frame corners (usually the castings or sidebars) to the trailer. They must be angled inward and the fore and aft ones must oppose each other so that the boat won't move forward or aft.

Like this:


However, it sounds like your system will work. It really doesn't take much to hold a Hobie Cat on to a trailer - even at highway speeds. The thing you're most worried about are fore and aft movement caused by hard braking and aerodynamic drag. Make sure everything is snug and follow the 1-10-100 rule - stop and check your tie-downs at 1 mile, 10 miles and 100 miles down the road. If nothing has moved, then your system works.

It is never good to use ratcheting tie downs – too easy to over tighten and damage your hulls.

_________________
1979 Hobie (sold)
1983 Hobie 16 Hawiian Sunset (sold)
1981 Hobie 16 Tequilla Sunrise - still own
2008 Hobie 16 (currently sailing the crap out of this boat)
1977 Super Sunfish
Founding member of the "San Dimas Yacht Club"
John

Both good points. I will tie to the pylons instead of around the hulls. For now I will have to use the ratchet straps but will get some non ratcheting ones soon.

I use some non ratcheting clamp style straps that go with my trailer and actually have metal hook things that go around the crossbars of the trailer. I took them apart and now can't figure out how to put them back together, lol. When I used them, the strap part went around the pylons and not the hulls.

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Marty
1984 H16 Yellow Nationals Redline, "Yellow Fever"
Lake Martin, 'Bama.

Marty I love your sails. They must have been well taken care of, they look new in your picture.

Thanks. The previous owner took very good care of the boat and the sails were always stored indoors in a sail bag. I have them stored inside as well.

I had to remove the picture in my signature because Photobucket doesn't allow 3rd party hosting of images anymore.

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Marty
1984 H16 Yellow Nationals Redline, "Yellow Fever"
Lake Martin, 'Bama.

NEVER use ratcheting straps over the hulls, even flip lock style straps can crush the hulls or distort them.
I've always used a cam lock and just snug them up.

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JKK
83 yellow/ white decks Hobie 14 Corando turbo
82 yellow hulls Hobie 16 Cat Fever
84 yellow hulls hobie 16 Yellow Nationals
plus a few extras that I'm restoring

Yes, I will switching to the cam lock style.

Trailered the boat down to RI and back with no problems. Everything stayed put.