FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
At this stage RackRider doesn't supply accessories or engines, but we do have recommendations. Please visit our Engines & Accessories page for further info.
The boat can be secured to your roof rack with a pair of 35mm wide ratchet straps. People who rig their vehicle for extended touring are an ingenious bunch and I am sure that there will be people bolting the boat down through the gunwales and by using many other methods. You can tailor fixing to be as simple or as complex as you wish.
The RackRider 3.7 is designed to sit on standard car roof racks. The bar width should be 1.4m minimum and the bar spacing should be around 1200 minimum. Securing the boat to your vehicle safely and in accordance with your local road transport legislation and within the limits set out by your vehicle manufacturer is your responsibility but we have designed the boat to do away with the necessity for rooftop mechanical boat loading systems.
The RackRider 3.7 weighs approximately 43kg as it comes from the factory. This means that with a bit of forethought the boat can be handled on and off the roof of a vehicle by one person. If you have an injury or are slightly built or aging then a second person can always make the job easier. One of our incentives in designing this boat was to bring something to the market that significantly undercuts the weight of other cartoppers because I wanted a boat that didn’t overload my personal vehicle. Many 3.7m tinnies that people are cartopping weigh over twice as much as the RackRider 3.7. One thing that I would caution my customers against is over accessorizing the boat. Don’t pay a premium for an ultralight boat and then add 15kg of accessories to it. Keep things simple and enjoy the ease of handling and performance that comes with a lack of weight.
The RackRider 3.7 is engineered and constructed using resin infused, foam core construction techniques. All the materials that are used to make up the hull are laid inside a mould. These are gel coat, fibreglass matting, foam core and then more fibreglass matting. When the materials are in the mould, they are covered with a sealed plastic bag. Feed lines for the resin are also set up under the bag. At this stage a vacuum is pulled on the bag and the resin is sucked through all of the materials in the mould and infuses them completely. When the resin infusion process is complete the boat is left to cure before the bag is removed. The hull is then removed from the mould. This process produces a very robust, rigid and lightweight boat. The seats are made in the same manner to remove every last kilogram that we could from the boat.
All RackRider boats are designed in Australia and built by our shipwrights in Melbourne.
The RackRider 3.7 is designed for short shaft engines in the 4 to 6hp range. These engines typically weigh 25 to 27kg and can be carried by most people. If you find these engines too heavy then a 2.5hp engine can be used. 2.5hp engines will weigh between 12 and 17kg meaning almost anyone can carry them, but they will be unable to plane the boat. The RackRider 3.7 is a very pleasant and frugal boat at displacement speeds and I personally travel at these speeds often if I am exploring the upper reaches of waterways. When choosing engines in the 4 to 6hp range, unless you will be using the boat as a one person boat then I suggest opting for the 6hp engine. There is no weight penalty and it has 50% more power than it’s 4hp brother. This is a small, light craft designed to push the performance boundaries when using low power. Saying that, it does have to comply with the laws of physics and there is a big difference in performance between to 4 and 6hp engines.
Rackrider 3.7 is designed for a maximum of 2 people. With 2 people aboard it is a roomy boat with ample space for additional luggage and accessories. Please view our Performance chart to see how the RackRider 3.7 performs with different load and motor combinations.
The RackRider 3.7 is a compact boat ideal for rivers, creeks, estuaries, sheltered waters and bays when the weather is fair. It has a fairly narrow beam and low freeboard and in good conditions rides beautifully. Seaworthiness is pretty much a function of boat size, so if you want to be on the water in rough conditions then we would suggest you consider a bigger and heavier vessel.
