Storing The Kayak, Part 1

Letting the kayaks sit on the floor of my garage is not a good thing. First, it takes up lots of valuable floor space. Second, sitting on the concrete floor would eventually create indentations on the bottom of the kayaks. Standing in my garage I noticed that all my preferred solutions had some reason why I couldn't do it. Hang them from the ceiling? Nope, lights and/or garage motor is in the way. Put them high on the wall? Nope, climbing a ladder and putting two kayaks in place would quickly result in bad things happening. Building a stand in the middle of the floor? Ah, no.... the wife would assault me.

I ended up going with the solution that sucked the least. I decided to build some slings that hooked to the side of my garage wall. I made the slings wide enough to lay the kayaks flat instead of on their side to minimize the vertical space I took up. Luckily if this turns out to be the wrong move I can move my supports and straps to improve the situation.

Here is a picture of the first sling with kayak:


That is real pine, you know. No cost spared.

And here is a picture of my trusty cutoff saw:


The main support is 28" long with a 30 degree angle on each end. I put a piece of wood above and below where the main support connected to the wall stud to help with the rotational pressure that would occur at that point. Then I used another pieced of wood to cover all three to provide additional support. I used 2 1/2 inch wood screws to attach everything. Here is a view:


I purchased a tie down strap like the below:


I started at the end that had no hook and cut off enough to wrap under the main support, back over the end of the support, then over to the wall stud. I tacked it into place and set the kayak on it and adjusted until I got the length I wanted. I then took the kayak off, measured the length (for the other end), cut it from the full length, and finally nailed it all in place.

Here are a few other views to get an idea how things went: