Boom Tent Winter Cover is on

[BobM]

I thought I'd take advantage of the long weekend to finish up my winterizing, which was down to just covering her up. My new to me this season S2 came with a Fairclough Boom Tent winter cover. I am pretty psyched about that as I certainly would have bought one. I figured that since I was investing in boat payments and intend to keep her for a while I'd get a real cover. Given the cost of the cover was about $1500, that means it would have paid for itself, versus shrinkwrapping, in about three seasons at Boston prices.

Per Wednesday's weather report, it was supposed to be nice when I planned on Sunday, but of course it was raining and actually sleeting as I was working. I guess I could have waited, but I figured I'd tough it out and get 'er done. It took me about an hour to figure it out and get it done. The only real challenge was initally laying out the cover over the boat correctly (figuring out bow and stern). Now that I have done it in the rain, I am confident that I can do it in half the time or better.

Photos are from the previous owner, but show clearly the details of how the cover is laid out clearly. The cover is well designed, in my opinion, with reinforcements in critial locations (around the base and chain plates). The material is heavy canvas coated with some sort of water repellant rubber or polymer on the outside. The previous owner bought it in 2005 and the only wear is chaffing in some of the tie down lines.

I also toughed it out and stayed to fixed my backstay turnbuckle, even though the rain was coming down and I was pretty soaked. I should have put my foul weather pant on, as I had to kneel on deck to tie all the ties to the toerail. I could have gotten around that if I had brought my longer step ladder, but I didn't. The yard removed the back stay to crane the boat and the turnbuckle had frozen leaving the back stay quite loose. I had briefly tried to lubricate and tighten it before, but to no avail. This time I was persistant and suceeded, then was off to the club for a late lunch, a beer and to watch some football. It is nice to have her all snugged down for the winter.

 

[Capt. Ed]

Bob ;I had one like yours and ran into a few problems that I corrected . First the bow section needs a piece of strapping or PVC tube to hold it up to weight of the snow ,second ,get the tent as rigid as possible .I placed a stand under the aft section of the boom and forced the tent up . Third ,the tent is inside of the stanchions ,thus the snow slides down the tent and collects right where you don't want it . I would go to the boat after a snow and remove it . It sure does beat shrink wrap .I now have a Fairclouth full cover on my Islander 36 and love it !

 

[Rich (P303)]

Full cover is the way to go... and get the topsides covered up. With this detail... does the water run down off the deck into the cockpit and freeze... or does it make it past the scuppers?

 

[Warren Milberg]

While I really like the way custom full covers look, they are just too expensive for me. I use 3 blue poly tarps (cost about $12 each) to cover the foredeck, drapped over the boom, and one to cover the aft end the cockpit. I add those yellow tarp grippers in between the grommets to add strength and prevent the tarps from getting whipped in the wind. I get about 3 seasons out of these inexpensive tarps. Works for me...

I'm already thinking spring...

 

[Rich (P303)]

While I really like the way custom full covers look, they are just too expensive for me. I use 3 blue poly tarps (cost about $12 each) to cover the fore deck, draped over the boom, and one to cover the aft end the cockpit. I add those yellow tarp grippers in between the grommets to add strength and prevent the tarps from getting whipped in the wind. I get about 3 seasons out of these inexpensive tarps. Works for me...

I'm already thinking spring...

I use one giant green/black tarp ($75) pulled down over the topsides onto the bottom paint... roll excess tarp up toward the inside and make a wad with some carpet scrapes (don't use the grommets) and tie the rolled up wads underneath together every other grommet. I make a rigid frame out of strapping from the ridge (bow to stern) down to the lifelines every 2 feet (all marked so it will go back together next year).

My goal is to get 5 years out of it... but we will see.

I would also like the Faircloth and rigid tubing... but that is way out of my league.

 

[Roger (Ninette Manitoba)]

my main objective is to keep snow out of the cockpit. the deck seems to handle things on its own. Here is a picture of my set up with cheapo tarps. I too get about 3 seasons out of a tarp, with its last duty being a drop cloth for the 'every four year' scrape the bottom job.

 

[Ian McGain]

Bob- I have a tie down method you may like for your tent. Look at the post for the Meant to Be on the Hunter Churbini section of this site. I have also attached several photos from this application. You have an open toe rail similiar to my Hunter 30. I bolt on an aluminimum greehouse wire channel lock on the outside of the toe rail and lock the poly in this channel using a zig-zag wire. In the spring, you unlock the zig-zag wire and out comes your tent. You can use this system for years. Material cost is under $100 for channel, wire, nuts, washers and bolts. You could hang your cover an then go round and apply the wire to pull tight. This way the snow load should slide over the toe rail. Might make your year end go quicker.

Ian
s/v Meant to Be

 

[BobM]

Thanks for all the interest and tips. Fortunately snow load doesn't seem to be too much of a problem in Winthrop. I have backed out of my driveway 30 miles east with over a foot of snow piled up and upon arrival in Winthrop found nothing. Triple Play has slotted toe rails, but the sides of the deck seem to drain much better than my Lancer 25, on which water used to pool amidships and freeze. There is no way for the water to get into the cockpit, to my knowledge.

Ian, I certainly agree that having the boom tent extend beyond the toe rail woud be an improvement, but it doesn't and is prevented from going lower by the fact that it rests on the boom. It would be nice if there were flaps that extended over the grommets in the cover and over the side of the boat. That would allow snow to run off, but maintain connection to the toe rail. I love your greenhouse channel lock solution.

Capt. Ed, I wish I had known about issues with snow load on the bow. I will monitor it and, as you suggest, add a bent section of PVC pipe if necesary from the mast forward.

Thanks to all,

BobM

 

[BobM]

Update - Capt. Ed was right

Bob ;I had one like yours and ran into a few problems that I corrected . First the bow section needs a piece of strapping or PVC tube to hold it up to weight of the snow ,second ,get the tent as rigid as possible .I placed a stand under the aft section of the boom and forced the tent up . Third ,the tent is inside of the stanchions ,thus the snow slides down the tent and collects right where you don't want it . I would go to the boat after a snow and remove it . It sure does beat shrink wrap .I now have a Fairclough full cover on my Islander 36 and love it !

Finally got down to check on the boat. We had over twelve inches of snow in two back to back storms just prior, followed by a week of cold weather. There was snow almost halfway up the boom tent and it had pressed down on the cover forming valleys at the toe rail which collected snow and ice. I cleaned her off with a plastic shovel.

It would be a significant improvement in design if the cover extended over the toe rails and then either tied under the boat or had weights (filled bottles) to hold it taught and better shed the snow. I may ask Fairclough for a quote on this upgrade. I also like the idea of adding some framing (bows of PVC perhaps) under the cover to prevent the sagging that occurred, although I could perhaps have had the cover a little tighter and will do so next season.

Anyway, it was a pretty severe winter and the cover did its job of keeping water out of my boat so I am still pretty satisfied with its performance. Worst case I might just sew on some flaps of matching material to extend it over the sides and ignore the bow and stern sections, which would provide me most of the improvements I am after without too much difficulty.

So...in summary...I still think that the Fairclough boom tent is a reasonable alternative to shrink wrapping (cost was about that of 2-3 seasons worth of shrink-wrapping) and was easy to deploy (set it up in about 45 minutes in the rain and no doubt will do it faster next year). However, it does require you to visit occasionally if there has been a lot of snow that is hanging around. This year has been VERY atypical for us. We haven't seen the grass since Thanksgiving, half my driveway is full of snow and my roof, barring where I rake, has also been covered for weeks at a time. Typically we just don't have that type of sustained snow coverage. It usually snows and then the snow melts because of either sun or rain. I expenct that the boom tent will fare better in those more typical conditions.