Forumites, I could use some advice on choosing a car to tow an RS Vareo. I quite fancy doing some open meetings however I’ve never done any towing before. I’ve done a little research and found that my current car ( a Honda Jazz 1.2) has an ‘un-braked’ towing capacity of 450kg. I don’t suppose that the Vareo on its combi would weigh more than 250kg so I guess that it would be feasible to use the Jazz if I were to get it fitted with a tow-bar. I am looking to change my car anyway and I was considering something with 1.4 litre engine, can I get away with such a small car ?…….any advice would be appreciated 

Many thanks in advance 

Nigel

P.S. By way of entertainment, what is the most ridiculous vehicle that you've seen used to tow a dinghy (please don't say a Honda Jazz towing a Vareo !)

Virtually whatever car you have you won't notice it on there!! 

Take care on those roundabouts

Stolen from another thread. I think the photo's the right way up!

Towed 2 Hurricanes stacked from Canvey to a many an open meeting in a Audi A4. Had to sell the car in the end, as I was getting oil into the water which was the result from racing up the hill on the A3 to Stokes bay open meeting some years ago.

What Jeffers said. With the addition of

7) Make sure the trailer is a little nose heavy with the boat on, to neutral and its horrable to tow. The applys maily if your coming back form events and putting wet smelly disgusting wetsuits and boots in the boat rather than the car to try and keep the  stink down in the car. Put the wet gear middle/front of the boat.

oh and if your going a real distance

8) take a spare trailer wheel

Ive taken a FD to Hungary and back with a 1.4 Seat Leon and had no problems. So a 1.4 will be well able to to handle a Vareo

Oh yeah, forgot to say. There is/has been some change to the regs in what you can/cant tow with some of the newer driving lisenses. I am not sure how much this is wait dependent and so it might not affect sailors.

But it might be worth checking depending when you got your lisnese

I looked into this when I was investigating. It goes back to when you passed your test. If you passed after 1997 you can only tow up to 750Kg and you aren't licensed to tow a braked trailer. Check out the following http://www.direct.gov.uk/Motoring/DriverLicensing/CaravansTrailersCommercialVehicles/TowingAndCommercialVehiclesArticles/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4022564&chk=Zv5gNw - link from direct.gov

As has also been mentioned, it also goes back to the braking weight of your car.

So basically if like me you passed after 1997, don't offer to tow the club 6mtr rib with braked trailer or the blue lights will be following you down the road.

Originally posted by Hobbo Passed in November and checked the regs - you need a special licence for anything over a certain weight/braked trailers, however that weight is considerably greater than an Osprey ( i'm legal for towing it) so short of a Wayfarer or and FD, you'll be fine

You'll be allright for one FD. A double stack might be pushing it but

Honda Jazz should do the job admirably. However if you can lay your hands on a turbo diesel, thats the ticket.

The ideal machine of that ilk of car is probably a Skoda Fabia VRS.

Take the time to learn how to reverse a trailer.  Personally, I get annoyed by the fact that there are people out there driving on the road who cannot back up with a trailer on the back...I've had to jump in to various people's cars and move them for them when there has been traffic building up in sailing club car parks or similar.  it's not inconceivable that one day you might find your car and trailer blocking the way of an ambulance or fire engine and you are going to feel mighty silly sat there unable to move out of their way.

There's plenty of stuff on the web on how to do it, and chuckle as you might you can do a lot worse than getting an old Britain's Farm tractor and trailer (they steer!) and having a go on the floor to get your head round it.  Then find yourself a big car park and practice, easier with the boat on the trailer as the length will be right and the trailer will be a lot easier to see.

The longer the trailer the easier it is to reverse.

Got lost on the outskirts of Dublin with two stacked Hurricanes behind. Took a wrong turn and ended up in a cul-de-sac with cars parked on either side. Trailer too heavy to man-handle and driving on my own so no option but to work those mirrors and reverse out slowly. 

Can I ask another question continuing on the post?

Do I have to notify the insurance company of the boat and car insurance of my intentions of towing?

Do boat/car insurance companies insure for towing accidents?

It never ceases to amaze me the things you see from behind the blue lights. There really are alot of plonkers out there, fortunately not many of them are towing boats

Boats are relatively light compared with cars (especially modern cars) so you'll hardly notice its there.  There's been some good advice earlier but if I can add a couple of points. 

1. tow for a few miles and then stop and check everything is OK, very often the boat moves or the lashings go slack. 

2. and old sail bag around the base of the mast is a good idea since shackles and other bits work lose with the vibration and drop off.  The bag catches them. 

3. do make sure the centreboard can't pivot down and rub on the road - there won't be much left after a couple of hundred miles.

I used to campaign a Scorpion, seriously.  One week I might be on Coniston and the next in the Thames Estuary - all behind a 602cc Citroen.  Only long motorway hills caused any problems and then they only slowed me to flat out in 3rd gear.

Not dinghies, but plenty of keelboats get into the realms where you need to look carefully at legal issues regarding towing.

Becasue of the change in the towing regs there are corses available for towing. Dunno what they include, but I know my sis is looking into it as she is sometimes required by her work to shift heavy & awkward trailers.

Did get told once that you cant get a tow bar for a smart as they arent technically classed as cars. Gess thats another urban myth then

If you were a crazy 'Merican you could wind up driving around with a rig like this!!