I took a few shots of how I have three lightweight canoes hung in my garage. Lowes now has an inexpensive plastic cleat that I now use as to keep the tension. It is a lot easier than the friction knots I used to use. Lowes has them back with the rope for about $3.
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2822919430043436830TBKaAg
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2249811550043436830KkQhrp
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2745298230043436830oCBgPW
Excuse my ignorance…
But is that what racing canoes look like these days? Or what exactly do you call your boats?
They look pretty radical to me, I guess I’ve been under a rock too long.
I’d love to paddle one.
For those with heavy boats, we’ve just installed a hoist from BassPro for my Mother-in-law. $50. Works well. She can get her fat poly boat on top of her SUV by herself. I won’t mention her age, she’d kill me. But I hope I’m as vigourus when I get there.
T
from top to bottom
– Last Updated: Jan-14-07 7:26 PM EST –
Wenonah J180 Gene Jensen
Wenonah J200 by Gene Jensen
Sawyer Shockwave a Dave Yost design
Don't misunderstand and think that I'm a canoe racer though. I'd love to try it sometime, but I'm in no kind of shape for it right now.
I have three canoes hung from my garage
ceiling also. My boats are not as radical, an OT Penobscot, a Bell Magic (Kev-Lite) and a Wenonah Vagabond (Royalex.) I built a frame from 2x4 lumber that holds all three boats. I raise them all together with a Harken Hoister. It is a great system and raises and lowers all three canoes at once. I select which boat I want to use, remove it and hoist the other two back up. Once I get photos of my set-up I’ll post it.
How do you raise and lower…
… the boats? It looks like it must be done manually with with help from another person. It appears that you’d have to do a lot of little-by-little alternate shuffling to get both ropes to advance as well as slide through those notches in the wooden boat hangers, from the look of it, but maybe I’m missing something.
I am proud of you!
It is nice to see someone who has canoes to paddle instead of just doing “floats”.
it’s pretty simple
The boards are only put in after a boat is up. And they are removed before lowering. The boards have 5/8" notches cut into the ends that keep them in place.
I can raise and lower them myself. These boats all weigh around 25 pounds so there really isn’t much to doing it. I raise both ends at the same time. I stand one of the ropes on the floor to hold it from slipping as needed.
With heavier boats, I would want to use a pulley instead of just running the boats through eyes.
I’d be curious to see photos of systems that others are using.
Here are pictures of my system
– Last Updated: Jan-14-07 10:41 PM EST –
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2102760240033466906jCAkuK
The rack and three canoes raise and lower with a single rope. The pulley system is a Harken Hoister (which I purchased). I made the rack so all canoes could be raised and lowered with a single system. The Harken system has a cam lock on the rope so it can be stopped at any height. I put a safety rope under the rack system (mounted to garage trusses with large stainless eyebolts) just in case the Harken rope would break or let loose. I can easily unhook the safety rope to lower the rack.
Someday I’ll post photos of mine
I suppose for such lightweight boats there’s less need to be very elaborate, and it sounds like what you have is quite satisfactory.
I’ll try to post photos of my hanging setups sometime soon. I have four boats hanging from home-built pulley systems, and for each, a pair of ropes is operated by a single hand winch. Also, one of those boats raises and lowers on a diagaonal instead of straight up and down, so that it can be stored against the wall, but come down a few feet away from other junk stored along the base of the wall. My guide-boat rides to and from a wall rack at the rear of the garage on an overhead trolley (I carry one end, the trolley carries the other). That was quite a project to build, but well worth it. I’ll plan on taking some pictures of this stuff this winter and post them. I’ve seen some other nice photos of rack systems posted here in the past, and I agree that it would be nice to see the ideas other people have come up with.
nice system
– Last Updated: Jan-15-07 7:26 AM EST –
I can't quite figure out exactly how it works. Checked the Harken Hoister website http://www.harken.com/hoister/review-gowler.php and saw that Harken makes sail rigs. It makes sense then that they could come up with a good garage storage hoist.
So you made the rack yourself? Does Harken give you the basic plans and then you modify to suit your boats?
Nice boats too!
Red Green Awesome man this is like tool
– Last Updated: Jan-15-07 8:09 AM EST –
time. Man after seeing all those patched holes in those Wenonah canoes I don't think I'll buy one of those anytime soon "8-p
Boat hanging looks great and since you showed me yours I'll show you mine. I keep all boats separate so if one somehow gets dropped the rest are safe. I just use the same tie down straps as used to hold the canoe on the car. The hooks I made are open on one side (very easy to thread) and bent to hold a 1"strap. 6 boats. I'm down to 5 now and will soon be down to just 2 or 3 as some are up for sale.
No pulleys, no cleats and not a spec of cereal.
http://www.grovestreet.com/jsp/onepic.jsp?id=255671
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b315/Indy425/test%20shots/testshot6.jpg
neat and tidy looking as usual N.T.
Wondering how you do it … Do you hang two loops and then feed the boat into them, then raise it the rest of the way little by little, one end then the other? That would seem a pretty good and simple system for handling heavier boats. May have to copy it sometime.
No pic. I’ll describe
I have a “sling” of line hanging from the rafter in the back of the garage that is tied to screw eyes. It is just low enough to slip the inverted bow in while carrying the yak with seat on top of my head. With the bow supported in the sling I raise the yak a bit and walk my hands back behind the cockpit. I have another two pieces of line, one with a loop and one with a snaphook sized for the stern. Holding the stern above my head, I grab the snaphook end of the line, run it under the stern and hook it to the loop line. I then shift the boat where it is “comfortable” in the slings and slip on the hatch cover. The yak is a 57# OT Loon 138. It’s not much bother with this system after you learn the leverage and body mechanics required to get the darn thing on your head. It actually is pretty easy to go from roof rack to garage or vice-versa as the yak is already six feet high. Most of the lifting is from the water or the cart. At a young 52 years old I expect to be able to continue this routine for awhile.
I just slide the boats in
I lower the front of the boat by loosening the strap a little and slide the boat out.
Putting it back I just carry the boat in and slide it into the straps, raise it up. it takes about 3 minutes from car to ceiling. I don’t take the straps down unless I need them for something else but they unhook easily. They are a continuous loop just as in the photo. You could use eye hooks if you plan on just leaving the straps in place. But you know me, I like to torture myself by making thing like 24 of those hooks. Thank heaven I didn’t have to make them all at one time.
Red Green would be proud.