Winter Covers

Sadly,
The winter cover up time is near.
New England weather can be brutal.
This is my first year with the Albin 36 DC. The yard estimate to shrink wrap is $1200.00.
Anyone using tarps and wood framework to accomplish this?
Perhaps a pic or sketch of the necessary framework woud be appreciated.

Thanks,

JCDSAIL

For my 34' Marine Trader (see my Avatar) I've rigged up a reusable gig with PVC and those grey plastic, very flexible electrical conduit tubes. Along with an enormous (30' x 50') tarp from a farm supply company. All held together with wire ties.

I spent maybe $600 - $700, the tarp was the biggest expense. I've gotten 3 years out of the tarp and will get at least 1 - 2 more. I can set the entire Rube Goldberg thing up by myself in about 2 hours. I only need help in getting the tarp over the top. When done, it looks like a Conestoga wagon mated with a rocket-ship.

I do have pics somewhere. If I can find them I'll post them up.

And, a few more.

Thank you

You have done a great job with the PVC conduits and it looks very weatherproof .

I will put your ideas to good use


JCDSAIL

I wish something like that would work for me.
Just to much wind anything short of plywood gets shredded.

We have 90+ mph wind regularly.

Nice job.

SD

Great work BL,
I just have the cabin tarped. Double tarped w HD white tarp on top and blue underneath. Going to refinish the cap rail and all on deck is OK. I took dn my radar platform and stored the (most) antenna's in the rubber duckie. My fwd skylight has it's own cover and is effective.
The cleat/winch platform is exposed to the weather and is being tested for durability. It's lasted one Alaska winter already.
Next year we'll be in covered moorage.
Pic is of our foredeck w the plywood winch/cleat platform.

I also make a frame out of PBC pipe with a blue tarp over. However, because of the wind, 60+ the tarp is held by bungee cords, so the tarp allows wind to passes over and under the tarp. The PBC frame is duct taped so to flexes, and the whole thing, PBC frame and tarp shake rattle and rolls in the wind. At 60+ MPH the frame and tarp lay flat to the deck, so it sort of like when a sail boat that gets knocked down. After the wind, I straighten it back up, until the next wind flatens it again. A tarp will last two years maybe three.

Ok the best tarp grabbers are Tarp Grabbers

We just did Hobo and they say it's good for 60 mph winds. We tented to keep the rain off not the snow though . We hired a guy who does it for a living on the side. It took 3 of us about 40 man hours over a weekend and a few nights. We used 40-20' pieces of 1" schedule 40 pvc.

Jamestown Distributors has some videos on how to shrink wrap a boat.

Y'all should leave them up for the summer too. Look like a good ol' boy redneck going down the waterway.

I have had some problems with heavy snow. You'll notice the slope from the fly-bridge to the bow isn't very steep. Snow wants to collect there and cave the tarp in just behind the bow pulpit rails. And I can tell you from personal experience that when that little area fills with snow & ice it weighs a TON!

I have added a few more bows to that area to try to fix the problem. It worked fine last year, but we didn't get anywhere near as much snow as we did in the 1st winter with this rig.

Also, when the sun is shining it gets plenty warm in there. It's dark so you'll need lights but it's shirt sleeve temperature.

Or you could get a cover custom made, this is our local guy. He has made over 4000 covers, a lot of boats in the PNW have them. No as inexpensive as a tarp but look better, stand up and last for years. Same material used to cover small planes.
http://www.boatcovers.org/Boatcovers.htm

How often do you, or can you, go by and knock the snow off the tarp?

Larry - great minds think alike! Did you use cable ties to hold things together? I find all sorts of uses for them. Almost as good as duct tape.

BaltimoreLurker said:

Larry - great minds think alike! Did you use cable ties to hold things together? I find all sorts of uses for them. Almost as good as duct tape.

Click to expand...

Cable ties are great but for this we used 1/4" polypropylene rope. We cut 12"-18" pieces then unwound the 3 strands and knotted each end. On some areas we used tape to make sure pvc against pvc doesn't' slide. We used PVC Tees cut to use as stand-offs for support where needed. The guy with the gun, Troy, showed us the tricks.

I love that trick with the T's! I tweak my rig every year I set it up. I may find a use for the T's this year.

winter cover

I use the same system as BL, but for the frame work I use well pipe. 2'' for the main or center support front to back and 1 1/2'' for the ribs. I use plastic ties to attach ribs to stanchions. We use a 30 + 50 heavy duty plastic tarp, good for 3 or 4 years $125.00 . Has worked for 18 years, most snow melts and runs off, hasn't been a problem .We are able to get into the boat to do some work . As BL said it does get warm under the tarp.
Mike

Nice work, Darrrel, but I am surprised that you haul every winter. I'd think that you would be OK leaving the boat in the water where you are. Any particular reason you choose to haul and cover it?

Al, good question! Now that I think about it I suppose it's partially reflex, 'cuz, isn't that what we're supposed to do in the winter? And partially because I'm concerned about leaving her exposed to the snow and ice freeze/thaw cycles.

What, exactly, those freeze/thaw cycles will do to the boat that would be different in the water vs. on land under a cover I'm not entirely sure about. My totally unscientific, gut feel is that it will accelerate the disintegration of the already wet wood core of the flybridge, house and deck. If I had a covered slip I would have no hesitation leaving her in the water year 'round.

Am I worrying needlessly? I am open to suggestion. There are a number of nice days during the layup period - Thanksgiving weekend thru April - when I ache to take her out for a run.

BaltimoreLurker said:

Larry - great minds think alike! Did you use cable ties to hold things together? I find all sorts of uses for them. Almost as good as duct tape.

Click to expand...

I using duct tape. That way the structure is not firm/ridged, and will flex move and even flatten out.

Phil Fill said:

I using duct tape. That way the structure is not firm/ridged, and will flex move and even flatten out.

Click to expand...

Phil, you might think about the cable ties. They allow for plenty of flex and movement. So much so that where I want to limit it I drill through the PVC and lace the cable ties through as well as around the tubes. They're easy to remove in the Spring with a pair of dikes or a box cutter and they leave no sticky residue behind.

I have had a few of the cable ties break under extreme wind and snow loading conditions.

Larry's split T's trick might help resolve the problem I'm having at the bow where the slope of the cover isn't steep enough to shed heavy snow. I'll be tinkering around with that a bit.

BaltimoreLurker said:

Phil, you might think about the cable ties. They allow for plenty of flex and movement. So much so that where I want to limit it I drill through the PVC and lace the cable ties through as well as around the tubes. They're easy to remove in the Spring with a pair of dikes or a box cutter and they leave no sticky residue behind.

I have had a few of the cable ties break under extreme wind and snow loading conditions.

Larry's split T's trick might help resolve the problem I'm having at the bow where the slope of the cover isn't steep enough to shed heavy snow. I'll be tinkering around with that a bit.

Click to expand...

I might give them a try as long as they are not ridged/flex. However, been using duc tape for 15+ years. The duc tape I use leaves very little residue. I have never had a tarp grabbers fail/come a parts and you can put them where you need them, and you can take them apart, like shucking an oyster.

BaltimoreLurker said:

Al, good question! Now that I think about it I suppose it's partially reflex, 'cuz, isn't that what we're supposed to do in the winter? And partially because I'm concerned about leaving her exposed to the snow and ice freeze/thaw cycles.

What, exactly, those freeze/thaw cycles will do to the boat that would be different in the water vs. on land under a cover I'm not entirely sure about. My totally unscientific, gut feel is that it will accelerate the disintegration of the already wet wood core of the flybridge, house and deck. If I had a covered slip I would have no hesitation leaving her in the water year 'round.

Am I worrying needlessly? I am open to suggestion. There are a number of nice days during the layup period - Thanksgiving weekend thru April - when I ache to take her out for a run.

Click to expand...

We are just south of you, actually 20 miles south of DC, and we keep our boat in the water all winter. The previous owner did the same, so probably 20 years with no freeze issues. BoatUS, who we have for insurance, even covers ice damage from VA and MD south. We keep a bilge heater on board, but just before Christmas we winterize the water, head and engine, just in case the marina power goes out. Remember that the water temps here keep the hull well above freezing until at least the end of December. Some of our best trips have been between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We dewinterize the systems in early March. One more tip we learned from one of our dock mates is to keep a bottle of the pink stuff in the head over the winter, that way you can flush in an emergency. We try to get to the boat every weekend year round, even if to just hang out in the clubhouse at the marina. As for snow, if we get a real storm like we did a few years ago, we go to the boat and shovel her out.

rochepoint said:

Or you could get a cover custom made, this is our local guy. He has made over 4000 covers, a lot of boats in the PNW have them. No as inexpensive as a tarp but look better, stand up and last for years. Same material used to cover small planes.
Boatcovers

Click to expand...

Thanks Mike; we have been thinking about covering our boat, and this looks like a reasonable solution. They seem to be popular in the Maple Bay marina although I had no idea who made them.

Just a little down the road as well.

Carolena said:

We are just south of you, actually 20 miles south of DC, and we keep our boat in the water all winter. The previous owner did the same, so probably 20 years with no freeze issues.

Click to expand...

Now you have me reconsidering. Anyone else here want to share their experiences of leaving the boat in year round in the Mid-Atlantic region?

rochepoint said:

Just a little down the road as well.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately we moved the boat up to Campbell River last year...

BaltimoreLurker said:

Now you have me reconsidering. Anyone else here want to share their experiences of leaving the boat in year round in the Mid-Atlantic region?

Click to expand...

Wow

We've left several of our boats in the harbor in Alaska year round.

No tarps because they rip and damage boats.

We just hire a boat watch guy who shovels off the boat when it snows

I have lived aboard just west of Toronto on a 40' powerboat for 15yrs. Last year paid $130 for shrink wrap and $30.00 to rent a propane gun.

Darrell, I think one factor in the decision is where you keep the boat during the summer. Are you on a mooring, in a marina, do you have ac power there? We keep a bilge heater going when a freeze is forecast, placed near the raw water intake, shut the thru-hulls, plus pink stuff in the head and water tanks, but also have the boat's regular heating system available (resistance coil on on the a/c so I do not need to keep raw water running as you would have to do with a reverse-cycle system) ) and generally keep it set at about 40 - 45 all the time. The only boats that pull out in the winter here are the guys with express boats and smaller craft that also have trailers to store them on.

Then again, we are a couple of hundred miles south of you.

My wife is going to be gone for two weeks, so today, we are putting on the Plexa glass over the salon windows, and next week end I will put back the pilot house canvas, and deck storage boxes canvas. I will not put back the big tarp over the front deck until October as I like a couple of weeks of rain on the deck, to swell the teak wood to make sure there are not leaks. I have re caulked some areas, replaced some fasteners, and sealed the deck twice.

Started the Webasto, worked fine, but will have it serviced before we run it 24/7 for 6+ months, 400+ gallons. Years ago the Webasto was cheaper to run than electricity. Now Electricity is cheaper so will use the electricity until it to cold to keep the boat warm. The advantage for running the Webasto, is it keeps the entire boat 65+ degrees, bilge/engine room, polishes the fuel, and uses up the fuel, so the fuel gets turned. During the storm days, rock and roll, polish the fuel as the fuel gets mixed up.

We have had 40+ days of no rain, but the morning dew and fog has been heavy to a point the dew is running down/off the deck/roof, but by mid afternoon is dry enough to do the last minute touch ups as it will be 6 to 9 months of wet/cold weather.