Experience with storing tender on roof rack

I am interested in the experiences others have had with getting tenders on the roof. We have been putting paddle boards on the roof for years with no problems. Considering a Takacat at about 50 lbs and concerned about how to get that weight up and down. Any feedback is appreciated.

I carried a West Marine PHP 310 dinghy (73 lbs) on the cockpit bimini of our R27 OB for years. Getting it down was no problem, just roll it off the side. Getting back up was a little awkward, I found having a line on the bow of the dinghy with one person up top steadying it that way and the other person on the swim step lifting it onto the roof worked.

Hello. I have a C248 and I just drag this thing over the bow rails by the painter. It's 51 lbs. Then I kind of walk it over and flop it onto the roof rack. If it's empty it's not too bad.

My experience was that it was super awkward to try to get up there, and that was with a dock to hang onto. Can't imagine what it would have been like at anchor.

Nail in the coffin was the fact that the solar panel punched multiple holes into the tubes and caused it deflate. Moved to a TrueKit that's light weight enough to manhandle and can very easily be stored in the cockpit lazarettes.

R23- A big no from 72 year old singlehanded me. I first bought a 12 foot kaboat from ‘Boats to Go.’ It was too long for the roof top, but otherwise perfect. I wish they made an 8’ version of that dinghy.

I then bought a manual Garhauer crane to stow another 70 lb inflatable on the roof. It’s a very well built quality product. However once up there the R23 became somewhat top heavy. Further, the dinghy was stowed right side up so it needed a taut cover to keep water out. Getting that installed after it was up there was a project in itself. And when the temp dropped the dinghy drooped along with the cover. Note I also had to modify the rear cross bar with a deep V to accommodate the V bottom shape of the dinghy.

I then switched to a west marine slat dinghy and stowed it upside down up there by lifting it up over the bow rail and then wrestled it the rest of the way on top. Still had the drooping problem.

Now i just roll it up and stow it in the lazarette. Or i put it, inflated, upside down over the motor…..see pics in my album.

The very fit husband/wife crew of R27OB Salty Mitten cruised the loop 2025-26. They documented the trip in a V-blog on YouTube. It’s very good. Their productions got better as the trip progressed. In several of the episodes, they show how they stowed the Takacat on top of their boat. They got pretty good at it working as team. This episode is one of the earlier ones so it’s not as polished as the later ones, but it shows how they got the Takacat from the water to roof. They were challenged by some wind.

We too store our dinghy on the rack. We wanted to optimize our solar while it is stowed so added a bit to the rack. So far it has worked perfectly. We use a similar technique as Salty Mitten and have recently switched to a Takacat. Takacats are much lighter and easier to handle.

Thanks for all your replies. TrueKit is a manufacturer I was not aware of. It is definitely something to consider, because I think if I do this it will be with something in the weight category of less than 60 lbs. We currently use paddleboards and they are easy enough to singlehandedly put on the roof racks.