C-Forum

Hey all,

As a relatively novice boater and having just acquired my third boat, I am looking for info and photos of how other folks are storing their boats when they are not in use. Right now, I have a big flatwater Disco under a neighbor’s porch, the Nitro hanging form the ceiling inside my shed, and the Caption outside on sawhorses with a contrived wood frame and tarp to keep the light/weather off the thing. A more permanent structure would seem to be in order.

Thoughts? TIA. --=--Ed.

Go here and look around :
http://picasaweb.google.com/scott.broam ... 0969836882

I've got some under the deck, some on a canoe trailer, and have done the saw horse / tarp trick, too.

broam -whats the make of that outrigger? familia like to vaca at the beach, and want to stay at some island or such, so Ive been contemplatin an outrigger for some fun in surf, and gittin way out there.

Brew, sorry to grab yer post.
I built two "ladders" wide enough to fit widest boat, spread far enough to fit longest boat, cemented into ground, voila, boat rack. Could make as tall or wide as needed. Mine stack 4 high, single width.

Walden Nalu. Riot had the mold after Walden folded. Not sure where it is now. Fun boat but I'm told it doesn't compare to the "real" thing. It's about as fast as a good sea kayak for me.

Aha, I knew you weren't going to stick with one boat.

Since I don't have a garage, I'm building a shed for my boats. 7x20, two bays. Left bay (3'-6" x 20') is open with cantilever supports for 4 canoes. Right bay (3'-6" x 20') is enclosed as big closet/cabinets for paddling gear as well as construction tools for building my house. The right bay provides support for the roof cantilever over the left, but I made the code official happy by putting a post there - just didn't tell him it was removeable. Post holds up the heavy snow loads, etc, but I can pop it out when I want to get at the boats.

At least that's the idea - fall's been busy, so it's only a foundation/floor framing now. Too hard to describe - I'll PM you my plan.

Scott, if you get any more boats you might have to get an old tobacco barn moved into your back yard. I wonder how many boats you could fit in one of those...especially conversions

Here's a picture of my boat rack before I strengthened/modified it (and cut the grass). Simply 4x4 posts in the ground with an additional set of posts driven in and connected with a horizontal section (envision a wooden chair with a very tall back). Each boat sits on a pair of 2x6s screwed on as boat cradles. Normally I keep all canoes inverted, but I had the Challenger upright in this photo for some reason. Since the main 4x4s will flex, I angled the support beams/cradles up to counteract this. The rack was leaning forward quite severely when I took the picture (following 70+ mph winds) and has since been corrected by adding a strengthening sections across the 90 degree angles at the base.

I ran into problems in that about 2 feet down, my entire yard is solid limestone bedrock. The rack is sitting on that bedrock instead of being buried much deeper.

There's now another level that supports the Dagger Rival up top....all the boats sit level or slope down towards the posts a little. As it should be, my two kayaks sit on the bottom, with the three canoes up in the air. When winter hits (now in these parts) I put a huge black tarp over the boats. The tarp is ugly, but works well.

I'll post pictures of the improved/final set up if you like

Phreon

phreon, I like the set up, easy access to either side. Do you have a roof to mitigate UV affects on your fleet?

d_rat, yeah, had to get the solo ride lost a couple of outings on the tandem due to no partner and decided I needed a solo option. Now if I can just get a chance to try it out ! I would like to see your plan. I need to do something more permanent and gear storage would be nice, too.

Brewbeer wrote:phreon, I like the set up, easy access to either side. Do you have a roof to mitigate UV affects on your fleet?

I hate having the boats outside, but there's just no way for me to get them into the house and we have no garage. There's currently no roof beyond the tarp, but I only put that on if I'm not going to use the boats for a good while, like winter or a long vacation. UV is a real concern, so for now, I 303 the heck out of the boats. The trees offer a good deal of protection throughout the day, but also are perfect roosting spots for birds.

I've thought about adding a final cantilever over the boats that I can stretch a UV proof cloth over and then drape down over the front. Perhaps use a large pole of some kind to wind the tarp up from the bottom like a reverse awning when I need full access to the boats.

We have a big winter storm coming and the tarp is on. We'll see how well it stands up to predicted 60 MPH winds.

Phreon

Hey Louie says he stores his boats where the sun don't shine...oh wait, thats his head. He uses a warehous 4 his boats.

Most of my canoes I just stack on top of each other, gunwales facing down, in the garage. One stack is two tandems. The other two stacks are three solos per stack. The bottom boat of all stacks rests on wood blocks. The two solo stacks lean a bit towards the tandem stack, which in turn, leans against the wall of the garage. I cover all the boats with a painters ground cloth to protection against UV from the garage windows. It's a little bit of a hassle when you want the bottom boat, but not much.

Three more boats are under the deck in a rack I made for them. Each is covered by a cover made by Whitewater Designs http://www.whitewaterdesigns.com/home/w ... overs.html

What is 303? Is that sunscreen for boats?

Brewbeer wrote:What is 303? Is that sunscreen for boats?

yeah, like armorall or something to protect vinyl

303 is water based, not petroleum (?) based like Armorall. Supposed to be better for boats and the river.

I've finally gotten around to taking a few images of my "small" boat rack. Yes, AdkSara is very understanding. And no, this isn't all of them.

On the NW side of the house, so sun never hits them I've thought of setting up a tarp 'curtain' to keep any reflected sun off, but have yet to do so. They are out of direct sunlight, do not get rained or snowed upon, and are dry. Verticals are 4x4 treated lumber - I made 4 "squares", then tied them together across the top, bolted them to the house, and then made deck supports, put plywood up there, and shingles to match the house (and roof angle matches one of our other roof pitches.) Cross pieces are 1/2" iron pipe with foam insulation around them. If I wasn't trying to fit as many in as I could I would have used 2x4's with carpet on top (attached on the sides).