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DSC00924 I never had much luck with tarps until I came up with this method of securing the tarp. A picture is worth a 1000 words so check it out. The tarp is first draped over the mast with the ends even on all sides. I folded the tarp over the tabernacle an tied a clove hitch with a couple of half hitches. Whatever excess I had left in my 3/8" sling, I went around the mast and tied a square knot to secure it. Where the two front flaps hang down, I took a piece of strapping and used it to roll the flaps on. I used a carpenter's spring clamp to secure it.
DSC00923 At the end of the boating season I always strip my mast of the standing rigging. Everything including my CDI Roller Furler get stowed down my cellar. I hang the furler up high on a long beam down there. The rigging is all roller up and hung. Halyards are left on the mast all done up. The mast is wrapped with long pieces of short width old polytarp for chafe protection for my main 18'x30' Polytarp.
DSC01121 I have about three or four of these lines going to my lifelines from the tarp. The hitch pictured is a slipped Clove Hitch. These hitches are so simple to tie that I can do them with my right hand. You can trip this hitch by pulling on that line hanging down. Once you get to hanging these tarps you get to where you can do it without even thinking. It becomes automatic. We went through two strong gales in one day last year while anchored with this tarp and it survived it with no rips.
DSC01119 When I set these tarps up I want to use simple quick release hitches so that I can tie and untie them in a hurry. This hitch is nothing but a round turn on the bail with a slip half hitch. All I need to do to untie it is pull on the end of the line hanging down.
DSC01085 This is what I call my "Poor sailor's Bimini top." Hey, it works. It's kind of tough when I'm trolling and I get a "fish on." My Penelope looks content. I love that little animal. She's the perfect First Mate. I think this pic was taken near the Mount Hope Bridge near Bristol RI.
DSC01032 Each spring after getting her bottom painted and loaded back on the trailer, I get the mast up. If some metal crook want to take this mast he's going to have to take it down. Anyway, I always mount the boom and set up a tarp over it so I can work on the boat in days of inclement weather. The tarp also keeps the dew and the leaves out.
DSC01116 That tarp over my boom is an 8'X10' and the other two are 5'x7' tarps. The grommets on these tarps are never place where you really need them. When I buy my tarps I always find the center of each long end of the tarp and install a 1/2" grommet. I also buy some 3/16" braid line and cut them at various lengths for the tie downs. On my boom tarp I installed doubled each line for the mast and end of boom tie offs and installed cow hitches. For the rest of the tarp I just tied single lines of various lengths needed for the lifeline tie offs.
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