I have an 18’ Wenonah composite canoe. On the freeways where I live, there is a lot of truck traffic, throwing up enough rocks and such that paint chips on the hood of my car have been a frequent occurrence. I haven’t done much freeway travel with my canoe, am worried about possible damage if I take it on longer trips. Do any of you have advice for transporting a canoe long distances, particularly through urban areas, with a minimum of damage?
Personal experience
in transporting everything from superlight slalom C-1’s on glass/carbon fiber to kevlar Mad Rivers to ABS mad Rivers to glass touring kayaks is that you stand a much greater chance of damaging the hull on a river or lake. I have had a half dozen broken windshields, chips in the car’s paint too numerous to count, but have never experienced any significant damage to a boat that I can recall. Just make sure to use bow & stern lines, and lock the boat to your roof.
Jim
just do it!!
I have the same experience as jsaults. Have taken boats from FL to WA/OR twice and FL to ME once and all over the state of FL with no damage. Maybe it has just been dumb luck, but the road debris does not seem to get thrown that high.
The high end canoe racers here do put their carbon boats in a slip cover before putting them on the rack. Not sure if that is for UV protection or flying debris protection or both.