Check your boat cover

[Mike G.]

This has been a tough January here in Connecticut. We are not used to the excessive snow of recent weeks. Roofs have been collapsing everywhere. A home collasped in our town yesterday.

For one reason or another I never got to cover my boat. Instead, I have been checking on it weekly and shoveling it out. I was unable to check on her last weekend. Saturday (just prior to the rain) I was able to make the visit. Well, I dodged a bullet!!! The ice and slush in the cockpit was an inch from entry.

There was no ice melt anywhere to be found at any local retailer, so I purchased water softener salt pellets and dumped them in the cockpit. Within an hour, water was flowing freely from the through hulls. The ice was gone by the end of the day.

While walking the yard, I noticed several DYI covers in sad shape. Those boats may be in much more danger of damage than mine. Most folks probably assume all is fine and are not checking. I also noticed about 8 boats that appear to be a lot nicer than mine with no covers and heavy show accumulation. My advice is to check immediately. Cockpits could be filled. Covers may be collapsed in the cockpit area with possible bent rails.

Mike

 

[kenn]

Good advice. Many of the most common afflictions of smaller boats come from cockpit damage and water intrusion caused by the buildup of ice and snow. Even on our 19' boat, I put a simple flat frame of 2x2s over the cockpit for support, and I use a fitted powerboat cover that nicely covers the boat to nearly mid-hull.

This has proved sturdy for 3 winters already, but yes I also check on the boat monthly.

 

[pogo2]

winter cover

thats why I spent a little extra and had a custom cover made, it keeps evrything inside and out nice and dry.

 

[Tim R.]

thats why I spent a little extra and had a custom cover made, it keeps evrything inside and out nice and dry.

Pogo, that is a nice cover but make sure the canvas will shed heavy wet snow. I had a similar cover that held the wet stuff and I had a few supports bend. They were the ones without a diagonal meant to support the middle section of the frame tubing.

 

[njsail]

Mike - Unfortunately I was one of those people with the DIY cover that collapsed. Many years ago on our previous boat the pole that supported the cockpit broke and the cockpit filled up with snow and ice to the point I thought I was in big trouble. Luckily I had just put a new seal on the cockpit engine hatch and it was holding well....but some ice was starting to reach it's icicles toward my pristine engine (I'm one of those nuts who cleans his engine). newly painted too. I spent several hours with a screw driver and hammer chipping ice from the cockpit. I couldn't feel my arms by the end of the day but saved the boat from some major damage.

I bought our new boat last year and purchased a custom cover since I also have teak decks. Last week I checked in on her and there was still some heavy ice on the back deck about 3 or 4 inches thick weighing the cover down. Point being....always check any cover structure on a regular basis. I love pogos raised cover. I opted for a cover that reaches down to the toe rail since the old cover I had on my last boat always caught rain/snow/ice at the lifeline and ended up causing me much grief. I used to drop/loosen the lifelines until I finally got the custom one with vents and openings. It's 3 separate parts for storage. Hopefully it lasts many seasons.

a good snow also gives a good reason to go check the boat...which turns into maybe I'll work on XYZ. Maybe I'll make a cup of coffee while I'm here.

 

[pogo2]

Winter cottage

the cover on my boat has a slippery outside to it and mostly all the snow and sleet slides off, in fact the boats covered with shrink wrap would retain more snow than mine. Thats not saying, I still check on the boat just about every other day. Its only 5 nimutes from my house and I'm usually driving that way. I plug in my ceramic heater and putz around the inside while several of my neighbors are shoveling out their cockpits, then they stop over for coffee and say what a great cover, but not for their boat ? Go figure!