Hi folks,
An “In the Same Boat” reader has sold his house and moved into an apartment, and he’s written to me asking for advice. He’d like to know how other paddlers who live in apartments manage to store and secure their boats. He has five canoes and two kayaks, and has them in temporary storage some distance from his new home, but would like to have a way to keep them closer to hand so he can take spontaneous evening paddles.
So, anyone have an idea they’d be willing to pass on? I’m writing an article about the topic and would like to include as many suggestions for him and others who are, ahem, in the same boat. Feel free to write to me directly or post/CC to this forum.
Thanks,
Tamia
tamia@paddling.net
Contributing Editor & Weekly Columnist, “In the Same Boat”
There should be room
for one canoe in the dining room, even if he lives upstairs. Ask me how I know this…
In the garage
My apartment has a garage, so I store my boats there.
Otherwise I would keep them in a storage garagem or at a friends place.
Local Paddling Club
A local paddling club should be a place to ask for help…he or she may just find a local paddler who would provide a storage site, or knows of one…don’t discount networking for a solution!
Store them at Dads house
Guess how I know this?
Also check with the boss at work. At one plant I worked at I was allowed to store camping gear etc on top of an indoor pump room.
If they are nice high end boats…
we have plenty of room here in our boat barn, but if they are el cheapos, sorry the boat barn is all filled up.
When I was working on the left coast and we were living in a apartment just outside of Sacramento, we kept our canoe in the living room. Used to take it in and out through the sliding glass doors.
Cheers,
JackL
Jack
Did you place a piece of glass over it and call it a table?
Throw a blanket in it,
and call it a cat bed.
patio
Out on the patio or terrace?
This is the one major drawback of living in a condo or apartment. Suggest storing the canoe that he/she will use for evening paddle as the above posters advise, inside the apartment. Keep the rest in storage unit or whittle down the fleet and keep one or two boats max.
storage locker
I currently have 10 canoes, 3 kayaks and a C1 sitting in a mini-storage locker and a couple more canoes and a kayak kicking around the carport and my backyard.
Oh, and two sea kayaks hanging from my garage ceiling.
A storage locker is not a bad way to go if it is within easy driving distance. The boats are out of your way and out of the sun. If you don’t have enough boats to justify one, maybe you can find another local paddler you trust and share. Just get a padlock with multiple keys.
if he needs one boat for
spontanaiety, its time he think of a Pak-Boat.
They fit into a big duffel bag.
It may be that life declares he sell some hardshells to get something more practical that he can use more often.
Like a too heavy boat is incovenient and leads to less paddling for some, so does a misplaced boat.
great website!
Too bad canoes are not made sectional. Or maybe I just don’t know of any.
One sectional canoe is in the
Canadian Canoe Museum and its likely heavily alarmed. They did exist at one time.
I wonder if…
it’s the same as my Dad designed for the Link Co. during WW11. He was in Gananoque (SP) Ontario.
Is it wood frame w/ canvas? Heavy as hell?
We had one of the prototypes in our barn loft for years.
T
I have over a dozen boats, but if I were
in his situation, I would quickly divest myself of most of them, keeping just the most versatile.
No, but during mid week evenings,
we would sit in it having a glass or two of wine and I would call huts, while we were waiting for our nice four day weekends - think russian river!
cheers,
jackL
Canoe as furniture
If stored in the livingroom they can also serve as a couch
http://www.londonspaddleshop.com/images/canoe_couch.jpg
Garage
I live in an apartment in NYC - when I got a new car, I rented a garage so it would stay nice. Then I started getting boats. I manage to hold 3 boats (1 hanging, 2 on Talic racks) along with the car. There’s room for one more hanging, if it comes to that. The big plus for me is that I can keep all the other paddling gear in there as well, and don’t have to carry it the 3 blocks to the garage every time I go out. An even bigger plus is the quick load-up - boat and gear on the car in under 10 minutes. The boat on top of the car in the photo is the one normally hanging from the rafters.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l234/carldelo/Kayak%20storage/SC1intheCity022.jpg
Very cool
That Mini makes a pretty good platform 'eh? You might appreciate this picture. That’s my buddy car behind me.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/k7lro/San%20DIego%209-2009/IMG_2691.jpg
