The wife and I moved to a new house that has a 25×25 foot area of lakefront access across the street from our house. We have two low cost rotomolded SOT fishing kayaks (14.5 feet) and one low cost sit inside kayak (12.5 feet). We’d like to build a wood rack for shoreline storage, but it would need to provide protection from sun damage. Any advice or ideas?? Maybe somehow hang tarps??
Tarps would work as long as air can flow around them. An alternative is a fabric which offers breathability and protection. I bought awning fabric from Hobby Lobby and use one for each of my kayaks.
In my case, they offer protection not only from sun but from today’s snow.
I use a poly tarp to cover the boats on the rack. It has to be replaced every year because UV ruins them. Sacrificial plastic.
I tried the tarp covering for several years and did not like the annual replacement required or flapping noise in high winds.
A couple years ago I found a sunbrella knock off online that provides UVA/UVB protection and is breathable. For about $75 and some basic backyard engineering I fabricated two lean-to coverings for my kayaks. The kayaks are now better protected and since the fabric is breathable, they do not have mold growth anymore. However, Spring pollen still needs to be cleaned off. That’s an incentive to use all the kayaks in the fleet during pollen season = more reason to paddle.
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Nice thing about a good fabric is at the end of the season it can be washed and ready to go the following year. Also, Aerospace Protectant makes a good UV protectant for such fabrics so the UV protection can be renewed.
Thanks for your reminder to use 303 on the fabric.