Boat Pulley Hoist System in Garage

One of the problems with having a boat is where to keep it when you are not using it. Let's face it. If it is not easy to use, it will not be used. If it is mostly in the way, you may think of getting rid of it. You could just put it up in the rafters or on the wall, but once up there, it will be hard to get down and you will make excuses that it is too hard to get down, so it won't get used.

I now have two row boats and I was thinking about what I would do with them in my garage. I thought of building a rack behind my garage and I would store outdoors under a tarp. Then, I recently came across a website, by Michael Krabach where he has come up with an inexpensive pulley hoist system to store his kayaks. I loved the idea and had to try it out. For about $50 in items from Home Depot, I made a pulley hoist for my 74 lb. rowboat. It works absolutely beautifully! I love it. The prusik knot to hold the lines is a great idea! It lifts the boat up out of the way quickly and high enough where I can drive a car underneath it and then set down on roof racks. I made 2 safely ropes under the boat as insurance in case of an unlikely pulley system failure, the safety ropes will catch the boat from falling to the floor.

This is so much better than my rafter system I had been using. Once I finally got it up in the rafters, it was not coming down because it was such a pain. With this system, all the work is done by the rope and pulleys using the age old mechanical advantage technique of a simple pulley.

I am now making one for my new Adirondack Guideboat and the boats will stay indoors and out of the way during the winter. Thanks Michael!