Winter Cover Fabrication

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Phil DiDomenico

Looking for any thoughts on how to go about fabricating a winter cover and frame for my 1998 Hunter 280.
 
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Ed Schenck

One way.

On my 37 I use those heavy silver/black covers from West Marine, very strong and very durable. Then I use two long sections of 6" drain hose, one for the bow section, and one for cabin top. I put lengths of 2x3 into them to keep them straight. One goes from mast to pulpit, the other from mast to companionway. These provide enough height to keep the rain water from pooling on the cover. For the cockpit I made a frame from the companionway that sits on the helm. A short curved piece of drain pipe goes from that frame to the coaming. The covers are notched for the mast and overlap about four feet fore and aft. The lines from the grommets go all the way down to the cradle. I do not cover the lifelines so the toerails are exposed at the stanchions. I am mostly concerned about the ports, teak, and cockpit(autohelm, instruments, etc.).
 
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Bob Zolczer

I used galvanized electrical conduit on my 29.5

I built my cover frame of 7/8" interior diameter (1" O.D.) galvanized electrical conduit. It consists of a ridgepole with vertical supports., ribs at a 30 degree down angle to the ridgepole, stringers either side of the ridgepole and rib legs. It supports my 200 lbs, so should stand up to snowloads. The design wasn't mine but was developed by a guy named LaScala from City Island, NY. He sells a patent applied for kit system called Kover Klamps which contains complete instructions, a video and all the parts you need except for the electrical conduit which is available at Home Depot/Lowes for $2.15 per 10 foot length. You also need a tubing cutter and bender also available at Home Depot/Lowes. One plus with this system is that once the frame is labeled (with labels from the kit),bent and sized to fit, it could be put together in a couple hours. If you change boats, you can reuse the same clamps and fittings and just buy new conduit which is pretty cheap. The guy is also accessible and will answer questions while you're building it. He has no web site but can be reached at 800-447-8536. I have no connection with him other than as a satisfied customer. You can pick your choice of cover - tarp or shrinkwrap and I built mine so I could store the boat with mast and boom attached. This also gives me room to work on the deck if I want to.
 
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