I am wondering what's the worst way somebody ever had to transport a mast or boat, and what problems did they encountered - traffic officers etc...
I mean like putting a long mast on top of a short car , stuff like that...Europe road law issues regarding transportation ? People pulled over by cops for trailering their boat etc... What kind of signaling oversized cargo ?

If you had any related (bad) stories, please tell.

What did you have in mind to do?

Carrying a long mast on a short car, physically possible, more worried about traffic officers.

There mast be some interesting stories to tell...

I carried my acat mast on my car, which is 20ft and the mast is 29 ft. Tied a ladder down first and then tied the mast to the ladder. The law in most states is you can only hang over 4ft from your stop lights and you need to tie red flags. I didnt have any issues with this..

I have been pulled over on a car only road with my trailer and got a ticket.

Bill

I took apart my Nacra 5.7 and transported it on top of my father's full-sized Buick station wagon. It was pretty precarious, but loading, transport, and unloading went off without a hitch.

As I was handing the keys back to my father in his garage, the rear window of the car (the one on the tailgate) spontaneously shattered into thousands of pieces. Weird.

14 foot car, 36 foot mast, 70km. passed two different cops at the side of the highway. no problem. here i think anything over four feet past the ends of the car needs a red flag. they dont say how far past is against the law.

Holly ..... !!! That is extreme. Nice shot. Already feel like I can pull it through now.
Thanks guys, looking forward for more stories.

Wow!!

it looks big, but only comes in at about 60lbs, so its not too bad. we did the trip again in reverse with the old, shorter rig. 32 feet.
i did the same thing with a sol cat mast that i picked up over 400 km away.
we built our second boat in our back yard. a blown up paper tiger at 22 feet. one hull at a time on the roof of the car to the club.
no problem.

No, no, no! You've gone too far, I don't believe it.
You want us to believe you drove that rig 70km in reverse??? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

well, ok, not driving backwards.

We regularly transported a pair of moths double decker (top one upside down).

It was precarious BEFORE the wheel fell-off, ending up in a vineyard on the way to the yacht club!

Only trouble I've ever heard of with boat trailering was a friend being pulled over for having the wings of a moth over-hanging the sides of its trailer, although still within overall width limits.

dude, you need a trailer, or a much longer car : )

Cool - would love to see pictures.

I followed an old Caddie down Rt295 into The Rudder Club of Jacksonville in the early 80's that had an 18SqM on a roof rack with the mast tied down off the bumpers(but bouncing around a bit). When we got there out pops Bob Bergsteadt and his pop, fresh from a trip from CA. It was a very funny sight to see. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The one thing to remember when car topping or trailering something like a mast, is that sometimes the payload will turn wider than the car......An 8+ racing shell, for example, will hang over the front and the back of the trailer, and the front will end taking more turning room than the car......snap. I was there when a Wendy's sign took out 2 quads. The slow motion crackling of carbon fiber caused nightmares for months.

With that said, when I was rowing, we used to make long hauls with a good bit hanging over each and and johnny law never bothered us.....We would car top the singles and they are roughly the same length as a small mast. ~25 feet.



and the back end of a trailer

well, for me, that was in the days before digital cameras. just think of a paper tiger, but bigger, on the roof of a shitty hyundi pony. one hull at a time.

Ya, but none of you have driven through New Jersey w/ out-of-state plates .... my story was true, it occured at the rest stop, southbound where the seperate "Truck" lanes end on the New Jersey Turnpike.

I think the 36'mast on the 14'car was a little more extreme ... hey you're in Canada, shouldn't those measurements be in metric???

HarryMurphey
H18mag/#9458, Fleet54/Div11
P-19mx w/spin /#86, CRAC

Buna ziua Isvflorin,

Am fost in Romania. (I have been in Romania). I think you have more to worry about from the crazy drivers than from the police. In 1994 Romania had 188.5 fatalities per 100,000 registered vehicles. For comparison, USA had 21.6, UK 13.3, Austria 31.6, Brazil 44.1, Italy 20.2, Japan 16.4, Sweden 15.1, Netherlands 19.8.
But the police can be pesky. In Romania, the police pull you over for nothing. You then give them the equivalent of about $5.00 just to get the bastards out of your face, then they go on their merry way, fat, dumb and happy. I only spent a few weeks in Romania, and we were pulled over three times for nothing.

D.Ho
TheMightyHobie18 1067

Hey D,
Nice to see your writing here. Yo're 100% right.
Trouble is that I have to drive 660km through Hungary also, and their road laws are also very strict. I had to cancel my trip and "regroup". Their law prohibits driving cargo exceeding 0.5m your vehicle dimensions, and the fines are high. Traffic is awful in Ro, crowded, bad roads, DUI drivers (lots of), no road discipline, and the cops...well let's just say they have small salaries. I found a boat trailer to use and will set off next week.
Were you here visiting or business ? Many things changes since 1994, some bad some good.