car top rack for 2 hobie sports

I have a "re-tooling" question.

For reasons to lengthy to explain, I now find myself with two hobie sports kayaks. 

I'm trying to come up with a good way to transport these two hobie sports on top of my Prius so that my wife or a guest could come with me on my adventures. 

My current transport system is a Yakima Q Towers rack on the Prius with 48" cross bars.  It's worked great for 6 years. I've hauled my little yellow hobie sport up and down the state without any issues.

The width of the Hobie Sport is supposed to be 29.5 inches. (Seems to be about 30" to me).  Cross bars for the Q-Towers system come in 66" and 78" bars.  My guess is that the 66" bars may not be wide enough.  If I get the 78" bars they will stick out 15" more on each side of my car than my current 48" bars.

So here are my questions.  If I get those 78" bars for my Yakima Q Towers rack:

1) Is it problematic to strap two kayaks side-by-side on a rack like that for transport?
2) Has anyone put such a wide Yakima rack system on a small car like a Prius?  Did that present any problems?
3) Is there a better way to transport two hobie sport kayaks on top of a Prius? 

Dave (who no longer lives in LA and is now an Arcata resident!! )   

The 78" bars are way too wide for a Prius. You and your passengers will constantly bump your heads into them. Stick with a 48" bar and buy a pair of kayakstackers.

Try to look into jracks instead. Putting a wide rack on a small car poses a danger. You will have to dodge it every time you enter your car. You will have to remind your passenger as well. Accident waiting to happen.

If you are going out mostly alone and only need to transport 2nd kayak occasionally I would consider two-fold solution - permanent for one kayak (the one you have now) and j-rack or kayak stacker when you need to transport 2  (in this case second person should be able to help load/unload). This is similar to what I have.

yakima j-low.

Interesting -- I looked this up --

https://www.rei.com/product/871152/yakima-jaylow-kayak-carrier

I wonder if the hobie sport would fit in that?  And if I could get 2 sports on my Prius with the 48" bars with one of these?  That might be the best solution.

I have 2 sets of jay-lows on two of my trucks.  Haven't tried using one jay-low with 2 boats yet but I'm sure it'd be fine.  I'd also look into upgrading your towers and bars to Yakima's new standard.  I'm using the new Core Bars on one of my trucks and it really makes a difference in the attachment and stability of the jay-low to the Core Bar.  I'd also try the 66" bars too if you wanted to save a little, seems like enough wiggle room to fit both boats side by side.