Anyone using this rack on a smaller boat?
I have both a 14 and 12.6 foot boat.
I spoke to the owner and he said the rack was mostly designed for longer boats but may work. I could drive there with my yaks and try it but I would like some advice before I haul two boats a couple of hours just to test it out.
Thanks
I just bought one but my boats are 15-19’. I do think you can have the central bar made shorter which might be a good idea if you are primarily transporting shorter kayaks. I have the Hatchback Special where the V’s are 7’ apart - probably a bit much for a 12’ kayak.
Boat in the photo is 17’9”
In the past, I carried the Dagger Stratos 14.5L and the Liquid Logic Remix XP 10 on my 8 ft Goodboy racks without a problem - both locally and at highway speeds. I do put tie down straps on my kayaks and only sometimes use the provided bungees as extra tie down security.
Because I changed cars and had to get the Hatchback model Goodboy at 7 ft length, I now have no concern carrying shorter kayaks.
FYI, I have the “lazy V” which seems to give more surface contact for sea kayaks. And, I have carried the shorter kayaks both hull up and hull down.
I used mine to haul a Pygmy Arctic Tern 14’ about 500 miles without issue. It actually settled better hull up, but worked perfectly.
This is not a Good Boy rack, it’s a Kayakpro EZ-Vee with 8 foot long bar. The skin boat is 13’9", the CD Pachena is 14’1". It works well for both. I have a second rack now that is 7 feet long, both work on the shorter rack just as well. I did go to PA and buy a Goodboy rack, but it held the skin boat too high, that’s why I sold it and got the second kayakpro.
I’m guessing the Goodboy racks will work on the short boats – when the Vees are at the ends where the boat is narrower, that allows the hull to sit lower on the rack. If your hulls have any significant rocker, that may be a problem, though.
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Goodboy offers V-bars of different widths. I use the narrow V in the front, and the wider V in the rear. I use their Slippy Socks on the wider rear V-bar so I can just slide the boat in.
Looks like Goodboy has evolved their designs quite a bit since I tried them out, looks like good stuff.
I’ve carried many, many different kayaks with Goodboy racks and they work well on just about everything. I have a little Swifty 9.5 that I have to flip upside down so it doesn’t rub on the rail, so I would say that is the shortest boat they can reasonably accommodate.
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