Storing a hobie vertically

After four months of researching, lurking, and general salivation, I am the owner of a discounted 2007 Hobie Outback! My excitement is verging on excessive.

My question is one of storage. There is a ton of room in my front stairwell, and it would be very easy to suspend my outback by a strip of webbing through the drive slot.

Unfortunately this does not seem to fall under the list of hobie advised storage methods. (can't say I've seen anything specifically against it either)

Any advice? Opinions?

--Daniel

(btw- Apalach, Roadrunner. . . after lurking these forums for a while, you are my heros)

Recommended is upside down or on its side. That's the only two ways recommended by Hobie as far as I know.

I don't think I would go through the drive hole. That is one of the strongest points on the boat, but I wouldn't want to stress it in a way other than designed for because its also where most failures seem to occur as well (usually on 06 and earlier models).

I have been told (though I don't know how much I trust this even though it was from a 'dealer') that is it fine to store straight up and that the only reason Hobie doesn't mention this is because they don't want people placing it rudder down and damage the yak. He said stright up with rudder up is fine but this place sells sailboats and Hobies (no other yaks) so ~shrugs~. That sounds like what you want to do, but it is still going to be at your own risk I think.

Storing vertically on end is OK- check the FAQ here:
http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=1152

I was at a Hobie kayak dealer shop a couple of weeks ago and they store their rentals that do not fit on the racks vertically on their nose.

Thanks everyone for the tips. Looks like it's okay to store vertically as stringy pointed to in the FAQ post by mmiller.

The problem is suspending it vertically, which I really need to do to make use of the space.

I'm inclined to agree with TDRILL that I don't want to be putting any undue stress on the drive hole, so I might have to figure out some sort of a harness to distribute the load. I don't know, we'll have to see about that.

Once the weather improves a bit it will likely spend more time on my car than in storage- when not in the water of course.

I've been storing/transporting my Sports for about 2 years with the method shown at my webpages.

Try ...

http://home.eartlink.net/~leinfam/index.html

...to see my setup. The dedicated rack info is on the 3rd page.

This rack has carried the boats about 8000 miles, now, and (so far) no problem with the boats. Please note that I use very thick padding to spread the load in the drive hole (not a strap or rope).

Also, the boats are secured on the drive pins at the exact angle to prevent distortion stress (such as very hot days). The lower straps are tightened sufficiently to slightly reduce load on the support pin.

There is no worry about dropping onto the rudders, because I'm using an electric winch (power in/out) to raise or lower the boats. The ease of use, with this rack, has really enhanced owning these kayaks. It doesn't matter how tired we are at the end of the day...loading and tie down is effortless!

Regards, JimL

I believe it'll work better.

http://home.earthlink.net/~leinfam/

JimL- a padded drive plug is a fantastic idea. It would distribute the pressure on the hull far better than a single webbing strap.

I caught a glimpse of your site a couple days ago, and your solution looked great. I love a good visual aid. Unable to load at the moment, but what I saw was great. I'll have my kayak swinging from the rafters yet!