I’m in a bit of a bind storing two 16-foot kayaks, one composite, one corelite-x plastic. The only place I can store them on my property (a rental) is outside, in a place that gets full sun for about 10 hours a day. Temps are between 80 and 100 F most days. So I’ve created a PVC-pipe shelter, covered the thing in suncloth that blocks 95% UV rays, bought a Malone J-rack, padded the J hooks, and then added two individual kayak covers to account for the rest of the light/heat.
Not sure there’s more I can do, but in reading about setups similar to mine, there’s a strong emphasis on storing boats upside-down or on their side. I can only really manage to load/unload this thing in the configuration below (see attached) – hull side down, but the boat at a 45 degree angle against the padded J-hooks. In this config, am I destined to warp the hull over time? Is there any advantage to going deck-side-down if it’s still at a similar 45 degree angle?
It’s probably OK, but you may find a problem with the plastic boat. Hanging on the side may help avoid weird deformations. I hang a couple of boats I own on a fence using 2 inch nylon webbing where I created slings that are simply loops in the webbing . they hang on their sides and every once in a while I reverse the way they face so each side gets some stress. They are covered with heavy duty UV resistant tarp. I do have the advantage that they are in a passageway between my house and a fence, so only receive full sun time a short part of the day most of the year. They’ve been stored this way for 15 years with no problems yet. I lived in Tucson for a couple of years and stored an aluminum canoe outdoors - you could bake bread in it in the summer. My neighbor had a cheap plastic kayak stored in his garage. One week the temps got up to about 114 several days, his kayak turned into a puddle .
Well, I live in central Florida, and it’s a bit hot here for seven months of the year! I’ve stored composite and thermoform boats on padded rollers with no ill effects. They look like large crossbars with thick padding. I can stack four boats in a very small space in the yak shak.
The poly boats live on J cradles on the trailer that also lives in the shack. The shack is basically a lean to built on the side of the shed. It has an aluminum roof for shade and pressure treated lumber for structural support.
Back in the day when money was tight, my poly boats lived on the ground under a tarp. The heat never seems to me to be a problem, just the UV.
We store all our boats on a home-built rack in the yard in Miami, but it’s shaded by our palms and tall mango tree. That said, it’s just as hot, for longer, tho’ the dappled sun is less, and our glass Aquanaut, our Trylon hardshell plastic Tracer, our glass Isthmus, and our three plastic boats are all in fine shape. The glass Isthmus and the old plastic Eclipse (yes, Jack, we still have that old warhorse, LOL!!!) are stored hull up, elevated on two horizontal 1x3s, the others stored spooned on their sides on 2x12’s. Plastic hull oil-canning/side deformation-wise, and sun aging-wise, they’re fine after between 13 and 20 years out there is negligible and non-existent, respectively. I go over them with 303 once or twice a year to retard UV degradation.
It’s highly likely yours will be OK with your setup as well, and with a little protectant, and perhaps a darker tarp to keep the light down, you’ll have your boats in great shape for years to come an to
