The Moomba Mothership

[KSmith]

Has aonyone made any mods to their Moombas to allow the boat to become the Mothership to a couple of Kayaks?

As I am always expanding my water sport options, the wife and I want to do some lake Kayaking in areas not easily accessible except by boat. So the thought is create a system to allow the transport of a couple of Kayaks on the Moomba so we can use the Moomba to get us near where we want to Kayak but to not damage the Moomba in anyway. I also do not want a permanent transport system installed as I want the boat "stock" when it is being used normally for wakeboarding, skiing, surfing, etc.

If we can get somewhere near our desired destination we use the Jeep to transport the Kayaks to a launch point, but some areas we have found do not have any nearby access except from the lake. We could of course spend untold hours paddling to where we want to explore, but the lakes around here are too dangerous for Kayaks to be out in open water with the multitude of idgets out there in power boats... IMHO... I digress...

My thoughts thus far are to use some Universal Roof Rack systems (they have the padded feet and only attach with straps and not stock roof racks) and replace the shorter crossbars with longer ones to reach across the swim platform. The feet of the crossbars would rest on top of the gunnels, the 2010 OBV has a fair amount of fiberglass along the rear gunnels to the siders of the sun deck. I don't want the Kayaks or mounts to sit on the sun deck platform as I do not want the vinyl or foam padding messed up.

Once I get the crossbars lengthened I would then mount some Kayak roof rack saddles (from Yakima) to the crossbars to hold the Kayaks.

The Kayaks would be secured in the front (to ski plylon via a custom tie down bracket I am thinking of building and then also the rear tower legs) and rear (to transom eyes).

The Kayaks are 11 feet long so in my boat the kayaks would extend into the boat cabin to just behind the driver and observer seats and then extend off the back about 3-4 feet I expect.

The Kayaks would only be mounted to the Moomba just before launch and retreival, the transport to and from the boat launch would be made on the racks I have on my truck.

This setup would have quick setup and teardown so it'd only be in use when the wife and I are going to use the Moomba as the Mothership, the rest of the time it'd be in the garage with the Kayaks.

What do you guys think? Am I missing something?

[KSmith]

My bad, please replace "swim platform" with "sun deck " when reading...

[skiyaker]

interesting concept- I've seen it done on larger boats but never on a moomba

how heavy are your kayaks? My wife and I have a couple of 2 seater hobie kayaks and they weight about 70# a piece- used to transport them on a ladder rack but finally just got a trailer for them- only have used them once so far this year! I've thought about selling them and getting some inflatable kayaks that I can bring aboard the moomba.

tell me more about how your roof rack feet will actually attach to the moomba? If you can figure out a way to secure the feet to the gunnels I think it can be done.

[moombadaze]

kS, I see no reason it wont work--go for it and take some photo's

[cab13367]

How about a pair of endless wave surf racks? Get the longest one available. There's a group buy going on right now.

[KSmith]

How about a pair of endless wave surf racks? Get the longest one available. There's a group buy going on right now.

Ouch, those aren't cheap LOL. Not sure those could handle the weight of the kayaks. Thanks for the suggestin though!

[KSmith]

interesting concept- I've seen it done on larger boats but never on a moomba

how heavy are your kayaks? My wife and I have a couple of 2 seater hobie kayaks and they weight about 70# a piece- used to transport them on a ladder rack but finally just got a trailer for them- only have used them once so far this year! I've thought about selling them and getting some inflatable kayaks that I can bring aboard the moomba.

tell me more about how your roof rack feet will actually attach to the moomba? If you can figure out a way to secure the feet to the gunnels I think it can be done.

The kayaks are right about 45# each roughly, under 50# each. I use the ladder rack on my truck to transport them, also I have a custom setup on my Jeep (4 door Wrangler Unlimited) that ends up using Yakima equipment on top (legss, crossbars, saddles, hully rollers).

The universal roof rack feet will just sit on the tops of the gunnels where the fiberglass is off to the sides of the rear storage lockers (sun deck).

The universal rack feet will basically just be friction fit as I don' t intend to build tie down points for the racks as I expect the weight of the kayaks and the kayaks themselves being tied down front and rear to be sufficient.

The kayaks would only be transported like this while the Moomba was launched, during transport to and from the lake the kayaks would get put up on the trucks ladder rack and secured and the universal racks taken down and stored.

As I don't expect to bust 30MPH in the Moomba when transporting kayaks I think this should work, but for those mechanical engineers out there please wade in and let me know what I am overlooking.

I could of course just tow the buggers behind the Moomba but that'd be wicked slow in transiting the lakes and I'd rather not have them crash into the Moomba during stops.

[scoot_gt]

Maybe get one of those huge mattress tubes and latch them to the tube, then tow.

[cab13367]

How about just putting an inflatable air mattress on top of the sun pad/engine cover, putting the kayaks on top of them upside down and lengthwise and strapping it down using the cleats?

[KSmith]

Hey Al, not a bad idea!

I'll keep that in mind as my backup plan in case my crossbars don't work out as expected.

I'll keep scoots idea as my plan C. I have a aquaglide airport, that is about 7.5 x 7.5. So that would be too big to fit on the sun deck which means I'd have to inflate it in the parking lot while preping the boat for launch... Towing the kayaks lashed to the inflatable doesn't thrill me I expect I'd have to be careful when underway and stopping...

I need a simple system that can be quickly setup and tore down at the boat launch as I try my best to not loiter in the prep lanes any longer than necessary. The prep time will be increased by setting up the kayak carrier system, then moving the kayaks from the truck ladder rack to carrier system on the Moomba and securing.

Hmmm.... it is looking like I may need to devise a carrier system capable of transporting the kayaks pre-attached to the Moomda from home to the launch just to make things easier at launch time (and retrieval too). That'd need to be capable of the forces encountered at say 55-60 MPH tow speeds for a couple of miles... Hmmm....

If I liked the inflatable kayaks that'd be the way to go, but they are a PITA IMHO and in my experience don't track well so that option is off the table...

Decisions decisions...

[moombadaze]

One idea, if you tow them-run the tow rope thru some pvc pipe-say 2 10' sections so there back atleast 20' and when you slow down that will keep them from hitting the back of the boat.

[kaneboats]

We want to see some pics of your end result as well as these areas where you are kayaking!!!

[KSmith]

Another interesting thought, thanks Daze! My main concern with towing the kayaks is submarining the kayaks while under power, smashing the kayaks violently into one another and then banging them into the boat is a concern too of course. I suppose I could use PVC and ropes to make poles to run between the kayaks kind of like a catamaran , but then there would be issues with front to back stability between the two kayaks as connection points would be flexible...

Yeah, I'll post some pics once I get this done. I ordered some parts so when those start coming in I'll start tearing them apart and modifying them to my plan.


I don't know if the areas we end up going to are going to be all that spectacular, but we'dd get some pics anyway as we are photo buffs too and can't do anything without at least a digital point & shoot tagging along. The heavy photo gear is reserved for more serious photo expeditions. Often we scout an area first with point and shoots and if we encounter interesting material we revist loaded for bear.

Maybe I should just buy a canoe with a 5HP motor... naaa... where is the fun in that ;-)

[wolfeman131]

My thought: find some way to mount the Yakima rack to the top of the tower. You're the King oF Clamps (still mad I didn't do my Monster Cargo that way) then tie off the front of the kayaks to the bow eye or grabrails and the rear to the ski pylon.

[KSmith]

My thought: find some way to mount the Yakima rack to the top of the tower. You're the King oF Clamps (still mad I didn't do my Monster Cargo that way) then tie off the front of the kayaks to the bow eye or grabrails and the rear to the ski pylon.

King of Clamps LOMA ;-)

Funny you should mention tower mounting. It had crossed my mind, really, but I end up dismissing it as I have my doubts about the tower being able to handle the additional stresses for the extra 100+ pounds of weight it'd put on in, and also the gap between the tower crossbars on the OBV tower is quite small, it'd be an issue not having enough spacing between the saddles I think.

I get enough shake in the tower already at times when in heavy chop or wakes from traffic...

I had also briefly consider some mounting method along the sides of the tower but decided it'd impair my view too much...

I also thought about a rack to sit on the swim platform and hang teh kayaks across the back sideways, but then the ends of teh kayaks would stick out to the sides and become of a sail which I didn't like that thought...

So above the sun deck becamce my focus running the kayaks parrallel to the boat, which will intrude into teh cabin but we'll only be doing this when it is just the wife and I and once the kayaks are launched we are then free to move about the cabin ;-)

I got some of the parts today, so far so good in initial fitment... time will tell when I get the rest of the parts, but I'll get started on modifying the crossbars tonight

[moombadaze]

How about just letting the yaks hang off the rear-part on the boat and the other end draggin in the water?

[KSmith]

How about just letting the yaks hang off the rear-part on the boat and the other end draggin in the water?

My God Man you can't be serious, and lose a chance to over engineer a solution!! Where is the fun and challenge in that :cool:

[moombadaze]

That was a simple/cheap plan. Not how I would do it. If I cant get it to cost about 5 times the budget then something is wrong

I'd have those yaks strapped on top of the tower with another rear support over the transom like your wanting

[KSmith]

That was a simple/cheap plan. Not how I would do it. If I cant get it to cost about 5 times the budget then something is wrong

I'd have those yaks strapped on top of the tower with another rear support over the transom like your wanting

LMAO, we must use the same engineering principles, take budget, multiple by at least 5, devise means to expend new budget ;-)

By the time I'm done it will either not work or it will be able to support another Moomba...

[KSmith]

Oooo new addition, perhaps a swinging crane to assist in deploying yaks... yeah yeah that;s the ticket... controls in cockpit and a wireless remote... Hmmmm could use it to haul my dog outta the water too :p

[wolfeman131]

the prior post that mentioned a catamaran got my little brain spinning. you need to build some sort of outrigger contraption that holds the kayaks off to each side so it looks like some kind of wild catamaran!

[KSmith]

the prior post that mentioned a catamaran got my little brain spinning. you need to build some sort of outrigger contraption that holds the kayaks off to each side so it looks like some kind of wild catamaran!

That does sound cool LOL

[moombadaze]

^^ I like it