Someone sent me an email, expressing disbelief at the notion that you could fit formula gear inside an Element (as I'd mentioned here). Well, here's how it works. It's a bit of a tight fit, but that's true of fitting Formula gear into just about any vehicle, even large mini vans.
What you see in the pictures is a Formula board, two booms (in their full length as needed to rig the sails - no real need to futz with the adjustment and shorten them for fit), two masts (520 and 550; those are under the board so they're hard to see in the pics), two sails (10.8 and 9.9), a box of accessories, a toolbox, a fin stash, a wetsuit and harness, and other odds and ends I happened to be carrying that day (gym bag, backpack for work, etc.)
The driver's seat is not pushed forward; the gear doesn't really encroach on my space, and the stuff sits low enough that while driving I have full use of the rearview and passenger side mirrors, and can see out the back and sides (in the side view picture, you can't really see the passenger side mirror b/c the camera angle is lower than my head would be while sitting in the driver seat). I have fit my slalom gear on top of my formula stuff pretty easily, but then I can't see out the side anymore, which is a bit sketchy.
Pretty amazing for a car that's shorter than a Civic...
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2 comments:
Nice job packing all the gear into the element. After a few days here in Holland Im honestly thinking the dutch could fit a formula setup attached to a bike. I saw a women today riding a bike with a baby seat on the front,a todder on the back seat and carrying a bag of groceries!
Still car free here but got my gear over to the Almere surf club in the containers on the beach- just in time for next w-ends Dutch formula championship.
Steve
When I was a kid in Germany (about 40 minutes from the Dutch border), I used to tow my gear to the local lake behind my bike - 12 foot longboard, shortboard, plus a couple rigs and all the stuff that goes along with it...
Hey Steve, go kick some ass in the Dutch Nats - I'll keep a lookout for the race report on your blog.
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