Kayak Storage

[Jay H]

I'm in the middle of a long project of building a kayak storage system underneath my deck. Problem is I refuse to cut into my hiking/biking/kayaking time so it's pretty much relegated to after I bike home from work and before it gets to dark. Which nowadays means about an hour a day. Next object is I am having a hard time procuring plywood. Cheap bastard in me means I've used about 75% of recycled wood I find or have reused from friends. But I am almost done. I need to find more plywood to finish the covering on top but I am going to try to take some pictures of it.

Right now, I have 5 U-shaped members made from 2x4s attached to the underside of my large deck facing the lake in the back of my house. Then I have basic 1/4-1/2" painted plywood running the sides and I have 2 plywood doors on hinges and lockable clasps on. I am going to finish the front door tonight.

On the base of each "U" member I have 2 2" fixed castor rollers for me to slide my kayak in and out. In that end, I built a 16' "tray" made of 1/2" thick plywood reinforced with some spare pieces of wood to serve as a floor. I don't want the kayak to rest on those castors for fear of harming the gelcoat since they are still fairly pointy. So basically I will put my kayak on my tray which will be padded with pool noodles I find in people's trash. Then I'll take the tray and slide that into my carrier and close and lock the door.

The bottom of my carrier will be screen door mesh I have simply stapled to the sides, this is for it to breath while allowing water to pass down. The roof will be my deck and also some more plywood. It's been kind of a 3 week project so far, a lot of it getting plywood and stuff but it's almost done. Pictures will be posted soon.

After this, I need to make a bike carrier for my basement to store 4+ bikes....

Jay

 

[daxs]

Sheesh. My kayak is on top of saw horses covered with a tarp. MAybe next year I'll be able to afford a shed...

 

[kaibar]

I store mine....

Here.....

 

[Stan]

Here.....

Well, here's a case of storage envy if I ever saw one ... but, what do you do at high tide?

 

[kaibar]

All the kayaks..

are up off the beach on racks and it is high tide in that picture...

 

[darren]

This is a photo from the garage at my old house, but I now have a shed at my house (in Mass, not out here in Hawaii) with the same 2x4 rack with foam pipe insulation padding.

- darren

 

[cbcbd]

Right now my kayak storage consists of 2 2X4s with carpet on top, sitting on some bricks. And then I throw a tarp on top - very fancy.

But I'm saving and planning for the future, so in probably 5-10 years I'm going to start working on this

 

[Jay H]

I've got no garage and my basement, although it is a full basement, there is no way for me to get a touring kayak down there due to how the door to the basement makes a 90deg turn to another door. I thought of making the same structure I have now but inside, utilizing a small basement window as access, however, there is a structural pole about 8' from the window and I wasn't sure if I would be able to angle it in such a way to clear the pole.

I can build another one below the one I made if I ever want to get another kayak...

The deck itself does a great job for UV protection!

Jay

 

[darren]

Jay - can you post pix? I'm not quite sure I know exactly what you built.

- darren

 

[Jay H]

Yeah, I'll post a pix when I get around to it. I wanted to take a shot of it before I put the walls up, but never remembered to. I'll get a shot of it soon, hopefully...

Jay

 

[KayakDan]

I built a freestanding kayak rack which basically looks like a giant letter E with longer feet on the bottom. I use foam kayak saddles on the 2x4 arms.
For winter storage,I built a frame out of old workbench legs,and we use tie down straps for a sling.