Space Saving Project for my Two-Man Boat

When I am putting my boat in or taking it out of the water, my boat gets a lot of looks and a few inquiries.  I love my boat.  In fact, I love it so much, I bought a second one a few years ago.  I used to keep one up at our family farm and one at my home.  Recently however, I brought my second boat home so my youngest son and I can fish out of one boat and my oldest can fish out of the second boat.  I like my boats for a few reasons.

They each have just enough space for a couple of guys with the bare essentials.  There isn't much maintenance either on these boats other than tighten the screws on the seats once a year.  The one drawback is that it is 4 & 1/2 feet wide and weighs close to 100 pounds.  This means you can't hang it on the wall like a kayak or canoe. Thankfully, it will balance on its' side which is part of the storage solution. 

My first boat has a platform that it sits on which has casters.  This allows me to move it around my garage without having to lay it down.  It also takes up a fraction of the horizontal space.  After I brought home my second boat, I had a need for a second frame.  I wanted to document the building process and share it with you in case you had a need for something like this.  I hope it helps.

I bought three 2 X 4's that were 8 feet long.  I ended up with a little extra lumber.

I cut one of the eight footers into 22 inch sections.

The four casters will come into play later.

I cut the two remaining eight footers into six foot long pieces.

Next, I laid two of the 22 inch long sections 6 feet apart.

I laid the two six foot sections on top of the shorter sections.

I put a screw in each corner and made sure everything stayed square.

After putting another screw into each corner, I placed the remaining 22 inch sections two feet apart.

The math was easy.

I found the middle of each board and marked the 2 feet mark on the frame.  I eyeballed this and put two screws in each connection.

Instead for completing the former step (or in addition to it) you can just measure from the ends and make sure the distances are consistent on both ends of the sections.

Here is the frame that the boat will balance on.

Install a caster at each corner on the bottom of the frame.

At this point, you can see the bottom of the frame.

These boats balance on their sides.

It is a little tricky to get the boat on the frame.  The method that I prefer is to lift the boat on one end and slide the frame under it. 

Side view.

Both boats stacked neatly in the garage.  I was surprised how the four seats balance nicely on top of both boats when they are next to one another.