If a boat can't take 40 lbs of vertical static load, you don't want to be paddling in it.

As long as it isn't bent, twisted or constantly flapping around it should be fine, at least from that point of view (as long as it can't fill with water).

I'm curious about where you'd find 12-20 feet of vertical space to hang a kayak. In a chimney?

Laszlo

At one time I was investigating the idea of putting our (plastic) kayaks vertically on the back of our motorhome.  A couple of people commented to not stand them on their ends (and strap them in around the middle)  but instead to build a harness out of seat belt webbing that would encircle each kayak a foot or so from the bottom end, hang that harness from a mid-kayak cross bar, then also put straps around the middle of each kayak tied also to the cross bar (along with a encircling strap a foot down from the top end too).  the reason for not standing on end (and instead using a harness with wide straps)   was under the thought that bouncing on their ends on rough roads and heat from the sun could put nasty twists or dimples in the kayak.  I opted to put our kayaks on top of the car we tow behind the motorhome so I dont know if standing them on their ends would have hurt them but just reporting what I heard, plus hanging from a wide-strap harness does seem pretty logical and easy to put up and take down even for storage at home if you have the vertical height for storage.

Curt

   We have stored many a small boat vertically. The difficulty is finding the vertical space. One location we had a 12' ceiling. We even made racks that looked like a carpeted ladder laying (bolted) on the floor. The kayaks stood on thier ends and the first leaned against the wall and subsequent boats leaned on the boat in front of them. We did have a few straps about 4' from the ground to make sure they didn't tip over. Worked very well. 15 boats in two lines. a lot of boats in very small square footage.

I have also stood up 420 fiberglass sailboats on thier transoms to pack a high school's fleet in a very small area for winter storage. Harvard used to hang thier fleet of ICs and Larks (smalll sailboats) from tracks on the ceiling to maximize thier storage space. As long as you hang or stand the boats on solid parts of the hull or deck, you are good!

   Some stores display their kayaks vertically.

  Thanks for the replies. some good ideas to think about,

Laszlo;  Two wood duck 10s, and a blank 12'  high garage wall.

Steve