RantOK, not to pick on Walt, but what is it about canoes that people
will spend hundreds/thousands on a canoe, an additional pot of money on
racks, and then tie the boat on with a chunk of the cheapest nylon rope
from Home Despot? Buy a good set of straps (15-20bucks) so that you can
put one across each bar, and secure the boat that way, use decent
braided rope (and trucker's hitch or tautline hitch) to tie the bow and
maybe the stern. Sorry, I've seen too many broken boats from cheap
homemade racks and crappy tiedowns. /Rant

That said I agree with everything else Walt says!

Walt wrote:
wrote:

We're looking into purchasing a used canoe (an Old Town Penobscot 16, a
16 footer) and the only car we have to carry it is a 2005 Subaru
Forester. There's a roof rack on the forester, and from rough tape
measure estimates, it looks like it'll be close, but it will fit. I'm
curious, though, if anyone has any experience with trying to carry a
canoe on a stock Subaru rack, and what suggestions you would have.
We've done plenty of canoeing, but have never had our own to carry
around.

Canoes are not that heavy. As long as you tie it down securely you
won't have a problem. People car top on all manner of vehicles (e.g.
Cooper Mini) without a problem.

Make sure you tie a bow line, a stern line, and a belly line. Two belly
lines if you're feeling unlucky. (Hint: Learn to tie a trucker's hitch
instead of buying fancy straps.) You want to excersize due diligence,
but it's not rocket surgery.

Use the 1-10-100 method of making sure your load is secu check it
after one mile, check it again after ten miles, then stop and check it
every 100 miles.

//Walt