Advice on extensive epic Ultra repair

This is a friend’s boat. His rack failed and boat and vbar came off the car at highway speeds. Any advice from those that have dealt with this before?

Looks like an insurance write off to me. Unless you have a pro like Ranga who can do the internal reinforcements (stringer / bolsters) it will not be safe out in big waves. Risk of seams popping if nose dive.

Not serious damage but definitely needs attention and internal inspection.

Most important is to see if the ski flexes when you push down in the middle whilst on trestles. Have your hand over the cracks and you will tell straight away if the cracks are structural.

Thanks Ranga! I passed on your advice to my friend.

Zach,

Any chance we can get a description of the rack failure? I have tried to document some of these to provide warnings (& avoidance if possible) about some potential rack failures. Did the owner have any back up strapping on the rack as insurance against such failure (straps over everything and through the car, straps on rack separate from straps on boats?, ...)?

Hi Paul,

Unfortunately I had no extra straps. When I first started paddling Surfski I would add an extra strap around the side rails but I got out of that habit at some point, damn. I am not 100% sure what failed but what seems likely is that the front cross bar either broke or pulled through the windward tower. The incident happened on an interstate so it was hectic and I did not retrieve all the parts. I had inspected the rack prior to my trip to the Gorge and all seemed good at that point. I was only driving about 30-35 mph but we had a gale with gusts well over 40 knots. I was driving mostly into the wind, maybe 20 degrees off the wind - of course there may have been a swirling side gust at the time. I was very lucky there was a gap in the traffic and no one was attempting to pass given the slow speed I was driving because the boats/rack went airborne and landed in the left lane so it could have been much worse.

Thanks Tim,

I am so thankful everyone avoided a greater mishap. I don't think folks are quite as aware as they should be of how often folks have had problems with their racks and not just their boat tie downs. I personally have had 2 near losses of my whole rack during Gorge trips and the paddlers in the Gorge have had a number of rack failure/near failure problems in recent years.

For what it's worth, I believe one of my rack failures was due to a design flaw in the rack that allowed a cross bar to slip sideways (there was a limit in the tightening mechanism for holding it in place). My second rack failure was due to my neglect of one of the tightening allen screws. In both instances I believe a strap over the whole rack helped to give me time to pull over before complete failure was able to occur.