There's no way I could "hop up onto the luggage rack" to do anything!  Even
with the step ladder I carried for loading the boat, I couldn't get up
there.  The only way I could get out there is to pop the top and go out the
window in the canvas.  Which of course is the problem in the first place!

Obviously other people are able to get onto the luggage rack - you're not
the first who has suggested that as a way to lift poptop with kayak.  Once
you are up there and have lifted the boat and poptop, how do you snap the
poptop bar into place?   Do you reach through the window to pull it forward?
In that case you'd have had to close the poptop with the window open before
you loaded the boat.

Or if someone else is in the van to pop the bar into place the whole issue
is moot, since with two people it's easy to lift poptop plus boat the normal
way.

I don't think I'd want to put that kind of stress on either of my boats,
either, to use it to raise the poptop.  With a metal canoe that would pose
less risk to the boat.  My boats are wood and Kevlar - one of each, I mean.
I don't think I'd do it to a plastic kayak, either, at least not a sea kayak
- they bend pretty easily.  And I'd never do it with a skin-on-frame, they
are definitely fragile.

Joy

****************************************************************
Joy Hecht
and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon

For musings about life and the vanadventures:
http://www.joyhecht.net

****************************************************************

  _____

From: Doug Alcock [mailto:doug.alcock@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 7:42 PM
To: Joy Hecht
Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Subject: Re: kayaks on roofs (was RE: How Far can a ....

>Oh, but the problem with the kayak is lifting the poptop

Here's a pic of my Westy with my 70lb canoe on top with the top
popped..............I can lift the top by myself (and I'm no muscleman) ----
the trick is to hop up into the luggage rack and lift from there. The boat
becomes a lever and you're lifting with your legs.........

http://doug.alcock.googlepages.com/vanagonwesty

Cheers,

Doug