> In another thread dealing with the coming of winter, Dale Frolander
> mentions Pete Ford's idea of storing kayaks indoors on a ceiling rack, and
> even supplies a picture. I'm considering something like that under the
> back porch overhang for my two Pygmy kayaks to keep them out of the
> weather and out of the sunlight. Anybody have any experience with a way of
> doing overhead storage that's stable, relatively shakeproof (yep, this is
> California), and not unduly hard to lift boats into (maybe something using
> slings and pulleys to lift the boats up into position)? How do you guys
> who keep kayaks in garages store them overhead? Mike

I cleared the back wall of my two car garage, and made a pair of vertical racks, inspired by but not quite copying the CLC racks pictured in their showroom in their newsletters. They are pretty and easy to use and the boats show well on them.

There are two 1x6 clear pine verticals, independent of each other, and spaced maybe nine feet apart, suspended from the top of the concrete wall- I used six inch stainless lag bolts into the beam atop the concrete, with small drilled shim blocks at the top of the concrete. They stop a foot or so above the floor which helps keep the area clear, also it looks better with the uninterrupted floor line.

The verticals are propped away at the bottom about a foot and a half, making the verticals slope out. I put 18" arms on, sloping up from the verticals, with triangular blocks at the joint, and stretched webbing from the arm tip to the vertical, making open faced slings. Its all screwed together with 3" stainless deck screws and unfinished. There is room for three boats if you measure things right.

You can just pick these boats up and put them away like books on a shelf, and you also get to admire them everytime you walk by. Its easy to fool around inside the cockpits without taking them down, too.

CLC didn't use the webbing, they have the arms sloping down a bit, which lets you store more boats and also see inside them for display. They also start from the floor, thats probably stronger with five or six boats on each rack like they have.

Had to rearrange things to get the back wall clear, it was a good chance to say goodby to some old stuff. Got me to clean the whole garage which was a good thing.