So you’ve recently bought an ILCA, and you’ve been able to go out sailing a few times, but know you want to get out racing. The only problem is, you don’t know how you should transport your boat to your local regatta or club race. Don’t let this stop you from joining the great community of racing Laser sailors. Here’s a few options for transporting your boat.
1. Trailer
This may seem like the obvious solution, and it definitely is one of the easiest ones. That being said, you don’t need to have a fancy ILCA specific trailer to transport your boat. Here are a couple of ideas for trailers which could also suit the job. The most important part when towing your boat is to make sure it’s secured well in both the forwards-backwards, and side-to-side planes of movement. You can use a combination of ratchet straps, or regular lines if you’re confident in your knots.
2. Car Topping (roof racks)
If you don’t have a trailer, but you do have roof racks on your car, loading your boat on top of your car is a great option, and doesn’t require much equipment. The ILCA was originally made to be ‘car topped’, and if you already have the beams going from one side of the car to the other, it’s simply a matter of flipping the boat upside down, and loading it onto the racks deck-side down. You may want to use some foam padding between the beams and the boat to make it a little more comfortable.
If you have a solid trolley, you can also put this upside down on the boat, and tie them down all together. The underside of your trolley is also a great spot to transport your spars, but make sure they’re secured properly! Another option is to use a collapsible dolley - this can be broken down into a few pieces and transported inside your car.
3. On an even bigger boat!
This is a bit of a joke, but if you’re lucky enough to have a boat to go cruising on, you can transport your ILCA on the deck, just like this commited ILCA sailor did. Though I’m not well versed in this mode of transportation, I’d imagine it’s similar to tying your boat on to your car roof.
Transporting your ILCA is a lot simpler than you think it may be, and competing at local regattas is a great way to meet new people, and grow your sailing skills. If you’ve got any concerns about transporting your boat, ILCA sailors are usually a pretty friendly group, and I’m sure someone would be happy to help you do it properly.