Storage Ideas for Your Fiberglass, Kevlar, and Carbon Fiber Kayaks
Kayakers take a lot of pride in their boats. This holds doubly true for fiberglass, Kevlar, carbon fiber, and other composite kayak paddlers. They are light, glide through the water, look super cool, and of course expensive. It is therefore absolutely essential that these water vehicles are stored properly so that no damage occurs when they aren’t even in use. Here are some tips on how to store your composite kayak and protect your baby and investment.
Store Your Composite Kayak Indoors
Composite kayaks are no little matter. That is they are rather long. This means that unless you have a garage, you’re forced to make some pretty difficult compromises. Whatever you do you really want to store your kayak indoors. This will protect your investment from theft, the sun’s damaging UV rays, rodents, bugs, and reptiles from making your boat home, and any inclement weather that could blow things into contact with your kayak.
Store It Using Straps or a Special Rack
You’ll need to plan out a long-term strategy on how to store your 14-foot plus behemoth of a boat. Luckily, unlike their plastic counterparts, composite kayaks don’t for the most part deform or lose their shape. They are however more fragile when it comes to getting damaged. Therefore, whatever you do, don’t just lean a composite kayak against a wall in your garage. This is how things end up placed on, leaned on, and falling on your kayak. You’ll need a space you can count on to be dedicated just for this purpose.
Hanging your kayak up is usually the most ideal situation as it uses no floor or shelf space and will eliminate the problem of things falling on your kayak. Straps with padding should prevent wear from rubbing between the strap and the kayak. Since most straps don’t come padded, you can put a towel or foam between the kayak and the strap once in place.
The next best way to store your kayak if hanging it is not an option for you is to build a shelf system and use padded contoured supports to hold your kayak up. If you go this route, the temptation will be to place other things on the shelf with your boat. And given enough time you may even lean things against your kayak or place things on or even in it. Resist that urge as convenient as it may seem at the time.
Plan for Ease of Access to Your Kayak
It’s one thing to have the perfect place to leave your composite kayak while not in use, it’s another altogether if you can’t easily get it there. You’ll need to consider this whenever you rig up what you will use to hang or store your kayak. If you have to go through a series of machinations to get your kayak into position in your garage, chances are you’re going to bang around in the process. You should be able to walk it straight into where it will be stored with no turns, tilts, or leans.
Final Thought
Of course, all of the above suggestions assume an ideal world that usually doesn’t exist. However, the closer you can get to the ideal, the better you’ll be able to preserve the prized possession you have that is your baby, your composite kayak.