ImpossibilityBox , 10 months ago

As others have pointed out, there is no bracing against the direction the weight is pulling the stand. Sacrificing a foot or two at the bottom to make room for bracing would improve the strength immensely.

You could also extend the base to the rear by 8-12" and adding cables from the base to the top in tension. this would provide at least some force to counter the weight of the kayaks/canoes.

The other thing to notice is that you only have a single bolt at your connection points. One bolt effectively acts like a pivot point. It’s only providing rotational resistance in one direction.

You can either do some joinery to help strengthen the connections (admittedly overkill) or use two fasteners and glue in place of a single bolt.