Okay, so I have a 10' Ascend FS10 yak and I live in an apartment. I know, I know, but it actually works pretty well. We do live on the second and third floor of a house so I have to wrangle the thing up or down a flight of stairs every time I bring it in or out, but I've gotten pretty good at that part and I'll happily break a sweat to own a yak. My question is concerning how to best store the thing for the winter. Right now it sits on top of two benches on our back deck (we have two) with a tarp over it, but I really don't want to leave it out there all winter. I have looked into yak hoists, and while we do have tall enough ceilings, I'm just not too pumped on the idea of lag-bolting something into a floor joist while I'm renting. My current best idea/option seems to be standing the thing vertically on it's rear end in the corner of one room and then using bungees to make sure it can't slip/move, my question (finally) is this: Will that cause damage to the boat if I store it like that long term? I've read that it's best to keep a yak on its side, but that just takes up so much more real estate if I leave it horizontal. I'm contemplating engineering some sort of holder with a cushion so that it's not sitting directly on the floor. As usual, any ideas/suggestions/knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I doubt that any damage would come from it standing on it's tail for the winter as long as it is as straight up as possible. I think most distortion comes from them being stored with tight straps in weird positions in high temperatures. They stand on their tails in stores for months waiting to be sold.....
They stand on their tails in stores for months waiting to be sold.....
That's a great point, considering Ascend is BassPro brand they probably get the crap kicked out of them at the distribution centers and the warehouses. Granted I bought mine on a nice spring day, but they literally just untethered the thing from a rack that was sitting outside near the dock with about 6 other boats and threw it on my car. I got the impression they just leave em out there (there were 2 of every style yak they sell) all the time. And now that I remember it, they were all standing vertically.
That's a great point, considering Ascend is BassPro brand they probably get the crap kicked out of them at the distribution centers and the warehouses. Granted I bought mine on a nice spring day, but they literally just untethered the thing from a rack that was sitting outside near the dock with about 6 other boats and threw it on my car. I got the impression they just leave em out there (there were 2 of every style yak they sell) all the time. And now that I remember it, they were all standing vertically.