My canoe is stored upside down under the garage roof. The nose is first
lifted by hand onto a small shelf attached near the top of a wall, and
the boat is then hoisted to the horizontal on a single trapeze located
about two-thirds of the way to the stern. The gunwales sit on the
trapeze crossbar and the two ropes from the ends, which thus straddle
the canoe, go through pulleys across the roof and down the adjacent
wall, where they are cleated.
Hoisting was hard work, even with my reasonably light (about 28 kg)
Dagger Reflection 15. After reading David's message, I added another
pair of pulleys to convert the single lifts into 2:1 purchases, and now
it's really easy. Thanks David. Why didn't I think of that?
Another thing that really helps is a 2-wheeled trolley contraption
(essentially just 2 wheels on an axle, with a few other bits to keep it
located securely) that clamps temporarily across the gunwales at one end
(the stern, in this case).
The trolley is attached before the canoe is lowered from the roof, again
in 2 stages. The trapeze is lowered first, so that the stern is now on
wheels on the floor, and the nose is tilted up and still resting on the
shelf. The nose can then be lifted off the shelf and the canoe wheeled
around easily, holding it by the nose. The wheels are far enough apart
(about 2 feet) to be stable and prevent the upside-down canoe flipping
sideways at any stage, which of course it tries to do. There is a short
vertical peg attached to the front of the shelf which the bow must be
lifted over. This locates behind the bow plate and stops the nose
sliding off the shelf when it's tilted up.
You can then wheel the boat over to put it on the car, upside down.
Approach the car from behind, lift the nose and rest it on the rear roof
bar. It will sit there happily while you walk to the stern. Lift the
stern by the still-attached trolley, which becomes a handle, giving you
good control over the boat, again stopping it flipping sideways as you
slide it forwards until it's resting on both roof bars. Reverse the
process to take it off, at the river if the ground's flat enough, and
back at home at the end of another happy trip.
This works well with a square-backed car like mine (Subaru Forester),
but I suppose on a sedan, the boot (trunk) might get in the way.
Ed
>> Stay informed about: Simple Hanging Canoe Rigging 
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