Optimist Transportation and Storage

There is no one perfect way to store or transport the Opti. What follows is a variety of proven solutions and the pitfalls you might encounter. There are many pictures. Should you have a cool idea please send it on to us so it can be added to our website.

Note: The ideas in this article are suggestions. McLaughlin cannot be held responsible for your use and interpretation of these concepts.

Transportation

The Optimist will easily fit inside a Suburban and standard size Vans. In fact two will sit comfortably one on top of the other. You will have to put the back seat down but they fit with room to spare. For a short haul most SUV's and Mini vans will accept the Opti with the back seat down and the rear hatch ajar but tied shut.

Car Topping

Outside the vehicle the Opti should ride upside down for obvious reasons of weather and water. A roof rack is the easiest to work with as it is secure and has tie down points. It takes 4 feet of roof or rack to comfortably hold the Optimist. Many vehicles are wide enough to accept the boat with no rack and just a little carpet, padding and rope. For those that are not wide enough, such as a smaller SUV like the Ford Explorer, you will need to secure 2 bolsters of 48 inch wooden 2 X 4s to the existing roof rack cross members or flat roof. This extends the range of your roof rack or car width. The bolsters are easy to put on and take off. If these boards are to be used many times carpet them and make them easier to use by drilling tie down holes, cutting notches, or adding eyebolts on the ends.

Above 96-inch Thule car top carriers on a 15-passenger van double stacked to carry 8 Optimists.

Make sure your roof rack load capacity is high enough. Most are. The hull only weights 77 pounds and the wind age creates more force then the weight of the boat.

Some times you have to be imaginative to find secure tie down points on you vehicle. The window doorpost is one seldom thought of place. Open the door and tie around the doorpost in a 4-door car or roll the back window down for a two-door car. The door gasket is so large that with ¼ or 5/16 lines the door will close with no problem. There are supports in the wheel wells that are more then strong enough to hold an Opti on you car and sometimes there are good connection points under the car near jack fittings. Your local car dealer may have some suggestions.

If you have a motorboat the Opti can be secured on the top of either as if it were on top of the car.

Tie Down and Protection

This is a most critical part of traveling with the Optimist be it one or a dozen boats. Having a boat get loose can cause an accident and is sure to ruin your weekend. At least 3 to 4 Optimist fly off someone's vehicle roof every year. We at the factory have lost 4. All were on the Interstate Highway at maximum allowable speed. The boats surprisingly come through such an adventure in remarkably good condition. McLaughlin has put every road kill Optimist back on the water and they were structurally sound. But still precaution is the best prevention.

A little known fact is that most homeowner Insurance policies covers your Optimist for $1000 to $1200 without any rider or marine policy. Check your policy under the personnel property section.

Backup Safety System

What ever system you use rooftop or trailer there should be a back up, fail safe tie down. The back up can be as simple as your painter going to the front grill and a line from either the air bag hiking straps or gudgeons to the rear bumper or trailer hitch. If there is a failure of your main tie down system your back up will allow you time to pull over and prevent an accident.

Another back up system is once you have a fore and aft strap tight in place run a line between them and cinch the two together.  If the boat moves in any direction the cinch strap will tighten both the straps keeping the knots from coming undone. Trust me it works.

When you tie down the boat you can use straps (Thule gives you two) or line both fore and aft.   Try to stay a little away from the bow because the slope and narrowing tends to make the strap go forward and loosen. With line what is referred to as a rolling hitch, canoeist hitch or truckers hitch doubles your power and holds the line tight while you tie the knot. This knot is strong, secure and allows you to easily untie your boat when you get to your destination.

Polyethylene ski rope stretches especially in rain, avoid it.

You must protect the boat from touching hard abrasive surfaces like metal. Over a long trip they will wear through the outer gelcoat of your boat. Canvas covered foam pads are available from most Marine stores. Carpet, pipe insulation foam, rags and even cardboard work well. Some line can also be abrasive, especially where it goes over the edge of the boat. Slipping a small square of cardboard or carpet under the line at this point will protect your boat bottom cover, which can wear through in one trip. The small squares can be slipped into place after the lines are secured.

Be sure the excess tails of your lines are secure. A line dropping on the road and getting under a tire can blow out the tire and damage the boat.

Removing Air Bags on a long trip is recommended unless you have a top cover. The vibration can wear a hole in the bag and will definitely shorten its life. A top cover will keep all the lines and parts from dropping out of the boat including the mast step cup, which tends to vibrate and back off the adjustment nut. The result is the mast cup and nut fall off on the highway. We have seen many a family arrive at an event only to discover they have no mast step. McLaughlin puts a rubber stopper on the screw end to prevent this but a dab of silicon adhesive or even a rubber band will do.

Building a Trailer

There are many configurations of trailers. Most trailers have the boats exposed and not enclosed. External trailers make it easier to get to any boat at any time. Enclosed trailers have the advantage of protecting your boat and equipment from the weather and theft. They can be expensive, require some creative engineering and must be special ordered with added width and height because of the size of the optimist. McLaughlin's internal trailers have the boats standing on end with two side by side.

I have also seen Optimist stacked in one row inside an enclosed 4-foot wide 8-foot long U-haul type trailer with 2 X 4's between each boat. Depending on the height you can fit about 4 Opti's inside.

Ordering a Trailer Bed

All you want is the flat trailer bed without all the rollers, pads and wenches. It is very simple and will cost from about $400 to $1500 depending on the length (number of boats you want to transport). Use about 200 pounds per boat as the weight in determining what capacity trailer you need. This accounts for the 77-pound Optimist, the storage rack and a little fudge for safety. To determine the trailer length multiple   50 inches times the number of stacks of boats you intend to have on the trailer. This gives you the needed dimension from the trailer nose (where the side rails become parallel) to the trailer lights at the back of the frame. Choose a tire size 12 inches or above. Low fender height above the frame and a low frame height make it easier to get the upper Opti's off and lowers wind age giving you better mileage.

The bed frame width (width between wheels) should 48 to 50 inches wide. This width works well with the rack size we recommend and it is wide enough to prevent any chance of rolling over.  A wider bed will not hurt and is needed if you plan on having a dual-purpose trailer that can also handle Lasers or 420's. A 40-inch bed is too narrow.

A galvanized or aluminum trailer keeps down maintenance costs especially if the trailer is stored near salt water. In many cases a galvanized trailer may not cost much more then a painted one.

Companies that make Opti trailers:

Designing your Rack System

The first McLaughlin trailer was made of 2 X 4's bolted together and held 8 Optimist on an old Snipe trailer. This worked fine but required constant inspection of joints. Seitech makes aluminum racks, which can be assembled in many configurations. They are comparable in price to a welded rack but do not have many of the features that can be designed into a welded one.

First decide how many boats you want to carry and if you want a gear storage compartment. There is a basic box size that holds one optimist. In making your design you are going to stack as many of these boxes as boats you want to haul. This system is simple and most welders will not charge you a lot to build them. If you or a friend can weld you can really save money, as the material are inexpensive.

The box frame size is 50 X 50 X 16.5 inches. Inside dimensions. This works well whether the boats are to ride fore and aft or cross wise to the hi-way. A foot can be put of the stack to clear fenders or adjust to a smaller or larger frame size. This foot to clear fenders is often used to build a storage compartment under the boats. Bolt or welded an angle iron system to secure the frame to the trailer bed.  

If you add a storage compartment consider placing a piece of inexpensive corrugated roof fiberglass panel on the floor of the compartment so that wet gear does not get rust stains. These panels are available for about $10 each from Home Depot and Lowe's.

Look at these different configurations and see how this box is use to support different quantities of boats.

Notice the storage area on the front of this 24-boat trailer.

Materials

Use 1 inch or 1 1/8 inch square tubing with a 1/8 Th inch wall. Thin wall tubing will self-destruct the welds as the unit sways going down the road. We tried it and were continually re weld joints and adding gussets.

To capture the bow of the boat we place 2 each ½ inch diameter rods cut 3 inches long 40 inches apart. These align the boats so they all stick out the same distance. These should be placed on the driver's side of the trailer. So the boats are removed from the passenger side.

For insulation protection use ½ inch heavy-duty double wall hose which is available from an industrial supply house. Ordinary garden hose wears through very quickly. Cut each piece 2 ½ inches long. Spray a little contact cement on the rod and on the tube.

To protect the boats from the bars see your local Opti Dealer for foam pads. Larsen Marketing also can sell you these pads. A combination of air conditioning foam and carpet will also work. Dock bumper material will also work.

To tie the boats down we use 2" seat belt webbing or similar material. You can pop rivet one end down and shock cord the other end. Roping both ends is also an option. Regular tie down straps or rope work equally as well.

While our current trailer uses straps to hold the boats in place we are working on an idea to lock the boats in place with a bar across the stern. No straps would be used. To prevent the bow from jumping over the pegs when you hit a bump we propose to run plastic PVC double wall gray pipe as the chocks running from top to bottom. The stern side of the trailer would have supports sticking out that would accept the lockable closure bars entrapping the boats.

Special Features

Towing Vehicles

Most Opti trailers can be pulled with a full size car or van. The follow is our estimate of the vehicle you will need.

1 to 4 boats just about any vehicle that will accept a class "A" hitch. Engine size can be 4 cylinders. Check your dealership for the specifications on your vehicle.

6 to 8 boats something like a SUV with a 6-cylinder engine is preferred. A towing package with transmission cooler will assure you have no problems.

9 to 12 and above boats should be pulled with an 8-cylinder engine. Again check your dealership.

A 16-boat trailer needs a vehicle designed for towing. Full size Vans or Suburban type vehicles that come with towing packages are perfect.

One thing to keep in mind the weight of the boats is very little. The wind age puts the strain on the vehicle.

Boat Storage

Unless indoors the Optimist is best stored upside down. The deck is very solid and can support point loading of weight while the bottom is a composite, which can indent if point loaded for long periods of time. The Opti is designed to spill water out of the two small fore and aft deck holes and the small mid ship frame hole. The three holes are at the lowest point in the boat when the boat is upside down. These holes prevent water build up and freeze damage.

A bottom cover is not necessary but will keep the boat clean.  If stored outside raising the boat off the ground with a couple of 4 foot long 2 X 4's or 4 X 4's will protect the cover from rot and staining of the deck from ground soil.

For indoor storage owners usually want to tie up as little space as possible. Standing the boat on its stern and leaning the boat against the wall is very acceptable. The boat balances best with the bottom against the wall. Be careful to raise the boat at least 3/4 inch off the floor with boards to protect the gudgeons from being bent.

Harken sells a complete pulley package for raising your Optimist to the ceiling of your garage.   Being only 77 pounds the ceiling load factor is not a problem.

Seen below is the Optimist storage and launch system at Privateer Yacht Club, Chattanooga, TN.   They used the same rack system as shown in our designing a trailer section but with a thinner 1/16-inch wall steel.

This Facility Features:

What ever you do "DO NOT SHRINK WRAP" the boat. There have been cases of moisture trapped in the bottom causing the same type blisters big boats see when they are left in the water.

Docks used for storage and launching the Optimist should be carpeted or well protected. Most boat damage occurs at launching, retrieval and storage. Make sure your docks will not harm the boat if crashed into or if the boat will be tied up for any length of time.

The edge of this dock is carpeted so the Opti's can be pulled up on the dock without damage to the bottoms.

Dollies can be used to launch, retrieve and store the Opti. The Optiparts dolly can accept the Opti upside down for long-term storage. Tie the boat to the dolly incase heavy winds come along.

Please share any ideas you come up with. We will add them to this narrative for others to use.