Boat N Easy 3.75 Barra Topper

Many of us who peruse the boat or caravan and camping shows in various states would have seen all sorts of car-top boat loaders on display.

Rather than be in the bustling hub of the main show, due to their low purchase price and low net profit margins, they are generally found on the outside of the field. This doesn’t make them a product of less interest. Quite to the contrary they are an integral part of life for most of the occupants of 4WDs seen towing caravans to and from the various waterways around this country, while their dinghy occupies the roof rack above.

Flip N Easy has been working in this field of recreation for some years now and make other products designed specifically for the travelling boater. Their collapsible boat trailer comes under the banner of 'Flip N Easy' while their engine loader designed to straddle the draw bar of a caravan and many other appendages of a vehicle is called the 'Slip N Easy'. Their popular vehicle roof side loader is called the 'Go N Easy'.

Back to the subject of this review; another 'Easy'! We also shot and edited an exclusive video review of the Boat N Easy which you can also see at the foot of this story.

The eye-catching aspect of this outfit when one sees it attached to a tow vehicle is the fact that it is trailer-less. In fact the boat itself is the trailer and as such has been certified by the relevant authorities and as well as a boat builder's plate, it sports a vehicle manufacturer’s label with such things as tare weight, aggregate trailer mass, speed and tyre ply rating and even a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) engraved thereon.

The boat hull therefore, becomes the trailer chassis, a feat that the average tinny would not qualify to perform due to their typical lightness of build.

The all-round thickness of the aluminium sheeting is 1.6mm and that includes the transom. There is one pressing in each hull side and four each side of the keel line in the bottom sheets. The keel line is 40-mm aluminium I-bar running the full length of the hull into the goose neck installation socket.

Inside the boat, there are eight sturdy ribs along its length along with two foam-filled thwart seats. The entire construction is assembled with welds without any use of rivets; the latter would provide obvious weak points.

The goose-neck and wheel assembly structural components are are constructed of 40mm by 3mm square stainless-steel box section. The goose-neck is fitted with a standard 50mm hitch and a single stainless-steel safety chain. It has two bends in it to take its fitted level from that of the tow bar of the vehicle to that of a mounting socket in the bow of the boat. Both bends have welded gussets and one is fish-plated each side. We had to ask; why not the other? The answer: "It doesn’t need any but the one fitted is for the turnbuckle chain to attach to".

The stem of the goose-neck slides into its socket and a pin is inserted through the entire assembly and a spring clip put through the pin end.

Two tensioning bolts are tightened to prevent any sideways movement which might equate to rattles heard when towing the boat.

A turnbuckle safety chain from the goose-neck to the bow of the hull further secures the outfit for towing and no doubt would eliminate any further rattles from these components en-route.

The wheel assemblies are held secure by the same style of fixture as that at the bow.

When all three are removed for boating, supplied shafts with flat end plates and foam sandwich spacers are inserted and pinned in place to the seal the apertures against water ingress.

These wheel assemblies have an internal shock absorber to take some of the jarring out of towing on rough roads. The spring used here is the valve stem spring from Ford’s Cleveland V8 motors -- a blast from the past and a quaint way of doing it to boot!

The wheel assembly is easily taken apart by removing the split pin in the top shaft and undoing the nyloc nut. This would only become necessary should there be a spring failure and general rinsing after launching in salt water is able to be performed externally. The company has been using this suspension system for two years without any returns due to corrosion or breakage, to date.

At 600mm deep in the sides this boat is beefier than most -- just the type you need in saurian-infested waters of the north, if only for peace of mind.

Sitting on the helm thwart seat one gets the impression of being in a larger vessel length wise. Normally the high gunwales would create the feeling of being boxed in by the sides but a prominent tapering of the gunwales in toward the bow at the forequarters has put paid to that.

The up-sweep of the bottom sheets from well back under the front thwart seat coupled with the side design will take a lot of the ‘bang’ out of some of the chop one experiences in open lakes and estuaries and long, wind-swept river straights in the northern part of this Continent. That higher level of the fore deck in front of the thwart seat also keeps luggage out of any water that may be sloshing around the rest of the hull. There is also a retaining fence further up this section of the hull behind which more gear may be stowed out of the damp.

It has the stability at rest that typifies semi-punt-style boats but it is the fore end that will be advantageous to many. A sharper entry at the bow can only tick more boxes in the comfort department for those on board.

Our review boat was fitted with a Tohatsu 18hp two-stroke motor which was three horsepower above the maximum recommended rating; it was the only power plant we could lay our hands on at short notice. Those three extra horses might add a little to the top end speed but will be more noticeable under throttle during hole-shot. And that was effortless.

An estimate of around 25-27 knots (50km/h) was put on its top-end speed and typical of flat bottom hulls, it held a flat attitude during hard turns. Very aggressive handling in turns at speed did cause slight aeration at the propeller but that is to be expected due to the deep I-beam that runs all the way to the transom, breaking the clear water. This component in itself performs well as an anti-slip device when pushing the envelope at speed.

Running over our own wake it performed as expected with the usual 'tinny' bumps and thumps but noticeable was the lack of flexing of the hull, thanks to the beefed-up build to comply with trailer certification.

Any boater that car tops a dinghy needs to have a serious look at this system. The weight saving from a typical boat, motor, trailer package is very real and as well, allows one to utilise vital saved vehicle storage space. And then there is the lack of maintenance on winches, rollers, springs and shackles which most of us would be happy to be without; not to mention getting a quality built boat in the deal.

But there is still duel registration. The boat will have separate registration for floating and another for towing; but then most of us would have had to have that anyway!