Mast Length on Car Roof???

[PI Design]

Hello,

Does anyone know if there is a maximum length for a mast that I can legally put on the roof of my car (in the UK/EU). Is 18ft too long on a Ford Mondeo?

Thanks.

[Raggi_Thor]

In Norway that would be OK as long as the ends are clearly marked.
But we are outside EU :-)

(I have a Ford Mondeo Ghia 1997 "stations wagoon" it's called here :-)

[PI Design]

Cheers Raggi,
As far as I can tell its the same here - but you'd think there would be some limit. I wouldn't fancy putting a 50' mast on the car!
By 'clearly marked' does that mean it would need to be lit at night? How would I do that -Christmas tree lights?!

[Tim B]

18 Feet is no problem, as I remember (I've done it a few times with a 21ft mast) but use a red flag on the aft end in the daytime, and a red lamp at night.

Quite often you can over-hang the front of the car, so the aft-overhang isn't quite as big.

Just make sure it's tied on well and is not going to shake itself to pieces.

Tim B.

[PI Design]

Cheers Tim,
Do you use a battery operated lamp like a bicycle lamp?

[Tim B]

Don't think it matters as long as it's red and doesn't fall off!!

Bicycle lamp (steady light) should be fine.

Tim B.

[Raggi_Thor]

In the summer when we move our boats and masts we have daylight for 23 hours or so :-) You can buy small red lamps for bikes here, they cost almost nothing and last forever, is it LED?

[Poida]

PI, your in England mate. Just wait for a thick fog, probably tomorrow if there isn't one now, nobody would have a clue what was tied to the top of your car. You wouldn't even know it was there.

[PI Design]

23 hrs of sun! Bet you get big mosquitoes though.

Well, of course, the fog stops us getting sun burnt. Natures own sun cream. No slip, slap, slop for us!

[Poida]

Nah PI mozzies aren't that big here, tho' one did land at the international airport last week and they pumped 5,000 litres of aviation fuel into it before they realised their mistake.

We don't do any sipping or slapping and the only slopping is the sound we make when we are guzzling beer.

Anyway if you want to carry your mast on the roof of your car, drill a hole through the roof, poke the mast in it upright and hoist the sail.

Think of the fuel you'll save.

All the best
Poida

[Mychael]

Once took a mast home on the top of a mates Austin 1800. THe mast was off a Dragon. Cannot recall the lenght.Timber.. The trouble we found was that it kept developing a weird resonence with the motion of the car. We had to keep varying the speed (of the car) otherwise things started to get a bit weird.
It was like having this thing with a life and mind of it's own aattached to the roof of the car.
Nearly took out a guy on a bicycle as we rounded a bend, I don't think he noticed all our overhang. It was almost like one of those old silent movies where the guy ends up hanging by his suspenders off the end of the mast.

Mychael

[safewalrus]

Thanks for that Poida, was going to ask if it was horizontal or vertical! Trouble we have over here is bridges and low flying aeroplanes (either al Qaida or military practising - the civilian pilots are too pi**** to notice! Run into a stone bridge and it don't half slow you down, kinda sudden like! the warm beer slops out the glass (luckily its warm so it's not too uncomfortable - if it's that ozzie stuff it has to be ice cold or you can't drink it, plays havoc with your bits when it slops all over them! But we have a cure!) the sheila's are pretty good at fixing it!!

[Trevlyns]

I’d suggest getting hold of the DVLA. The technical term you’re looking for is load projections and I know from my early South African Traffic Police days, that these are clearly defined. If memory serves (less 25 percent for age and booze ) the SA requirement is that it was not to protrude more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) beyond the rearmost point of the vehicle.

[safewalrus]

luckily, even tho' the UK is absoutely crawling with South Africans as far as their laws are concerned they ain't extant in England yet - the guy 'stroking his mast' is in England, and for some unknown reason wants to know how he 'stands' in England - and theres some doubtful stuff there to for those who know how to look!

[PI Design]

Morning all,

Good to see you've got the imagination going!

I got in touch with the DVLA re 'load projections' (thanks Trevlyns) who sent me a document.
It can project upto 2m out the back - so long as it is clearly visable. You can go to 3.05m carrying a marker on the back, beyond that you need to inform the police. You can get a 2m protusion out the front without doing anything. They didn't know whether these rules were EU-wide.

So a 4m car can take an 8m mast without too many difficulties - although it might bend!