Winter Cover

shemandr · Oct 13, 2022

I didn't cover my first two keel boats on LI. There was rain, snow and ice and sometimes all three. I did fret a bit when there was rain on top of snow in the cockpit. I even shoveled the cockpit once or twice - a more dangerous endeavor than I would do again. But the boats did fine. They are built to be out in the weather. They were GOB's and not worth a lot of money. My last keel boat was newer, and I had a loan on it. I bought a winter cover from one of the well known venders for nearly 3K. I was under whelmed by the fit of the cover and every year it needed repairs. And I had to store the canvas and frames. When I would un-cover the boat in the spring, a dangerous act that I would not do at my age, there would be a patina of dirt on the deck. Inside the boat was fine with little mildew in part to using the bags and in part due to being careful with ventilation.
That was my experience.

RoyS · Oct 13, 2022

I have the marina shrink wrap my boat and have been doing that for decades. Wish I had bought a custom cover in the beginning but never seemed to have the money at hand. BTW the shrink wrap is recycled, if that makes you feel better.

Sailfanatic · Oct 13, 2022

I went one season in Boston without a cover as I found the shrink wrapping to have become too expensive. After each snow storm, I would travel to the boat and shovel and brush all snow off the boat, especially clearing the cockpit.

I think it essential that you dont allow snow to collect in a cockpit, as with the subsequent melt/freeze cycles it is possible to ice up the scupper lines. A bad a result would be water filling the cockpit and flowing over into the interior. A worse result would be a split scupper hose which might not be noticed until the boat sinks after spring launching.

Finding it far too difficult to clean the boat regularly, I ordered a custom made deck tent cover from www.shipshapecanvas.com. I consider this cover the best marine purchase made in my fifty years of boat ownership. Once you cut the tie down lines to length, it would take only 2-3 hours to install or remove the cover. By its third season of use, it had paid for itself, and was still looking like new.

If you are going to keep your boat three of more seasons, its a simple answer.

Scott B · Oct 13, 2022

Not so much the snow, but the freeze / thaw cycle. Get a slight thaw / mild weather that quick freezes and the snow has a layer of ice on top or completely solid ice. Get a good rain after that and the water will run places it never has before. I experience that with roofs every year ( commercial roofing ) . Also concern of water getting into places / fittings and then freezing doing damage not to mention the tremendous added weight of the ice.

I've had a custom cover for 10 years and has worked great. Set up that is easy to install and take down. Less than a day each. Cost far less than shrink wrap. Advantage of shrink wrap is marine does it for you and yes most recycle the shrink AFIK.

quadrille38 · Oct 13, 2022

Back in 1993 I did the blue tarp thing on our Catalina 34. Was a nightmare and took most of a day to get it on. Within a month or so it was coming loose. In 1994 due to a medical emergency I was unable to do the boat covering so I started calling for solutions.
I found that shrink wrap was at that time around $800 and was a throw away in the spring. A custom made canvas cover was $1200 and had a 10 to 12 year life. I could working alone put in on in about an hour. The cost math alone was reason to do the custom cover and the ease of installation was a bonus.

When we purchased our new Hunter 38 in 2009 one of the first things we did was order a custom winter cover. Wouldn't go any other way. There are newer materials that have a somewhat longer life. Now we have a great service too in that the company that makes the cover provides a service where for a modest fee they put cover on in the fall and in the spring they take it off, dry it, inspect and repair if needed then store it for the summer.

RitSim · Oct 13, 2022

My last boat (in C T) had a cover from Topshop in Ontario Canada. Had an aluminum frame and I could put the entire cover on in about 6-8 hrs. My newer boat ( a little bigger) had a cover from New Haven. it was a steel frame that required 1x3 wood stringers and a lot of work. Took 6-8 hours for the frame alone. The cover itself ripped two years ago and a replacement was nearly the cost of a complete new cover. The last two years i used the frame with tarps covering from the mast back.

shemandr · Oct 13, 2022

My disparaged cover was a down to the waterline cover with a full frame including those wood stringers. ( Stringers not included). A cockpit cover would be a different animal. But snow will still get in, although much less.
I still would use a custom cover for any boat that I need to preserve the value of. But it would be an eyes open situation not assuming that a cover is all protective of the boat.
Shrink wrap makes a terrarium. If you have painted topsides and the boat yard is careless with the plastic over the paint, you will have problems.
Shrink wrap is a profit center for boat yards and I'm not surprised that yards are increasingly requiring it. I'll not mention the name of a well known marine service company with facilities up and down the East coast, which have Sea Rays lined up like shark teeth with shrink wrap over each arranged in rows according to size. Very neat! Pretty profitable. Customer has no choice! That is the deal. I'll not cry for Sea Rays but that is what we are up against in marina space. Not to mention the fuel.
If you have a good spot hang onto it like grim death. It won't be easy to replace.

RoyS · Oct 14, 2022

Sailfanatic said:
If you are going to keep your boat three of more seasons, its a simple answer.

If the cover maker offered a three year payment plan, sales would boom.

Tally Ho · Oct 14, 2022

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get a cover made for this season (if you wanted to go that route).

I am a big fan of covering the boat to protect from the freeze/thaw cycles, UV exposure, etc.

I did not cover my first boat (Hunter 280) in NW Indiana on Lake Michigan). But my current good old boat (O’Day 322) gets covered with a custom canvas cover. Yes, it was expensive to have made, but I am on year 7 or 8 now, still holding up. I covered her in tarps the first year, but it was a pain to set it up. My canvas cover is in 3
pieces, that zip together.

Greg

Parsons · Oct 14, 2022

I have no experience not covering boats through winters, but when I looked around my Michigan storage yard in winter, there were only one or two trashy boats not covered. I do not think it was just fashion that caused a few hundred sailors to spend a weekend or almost a grand each year to cover them up, but probably rational concern for the freeze-thaw tearing up the decks. I agree that a couple of feet of snow alone probably would not damage a boat on a stand, but the invasive effect of ice forming just beneath the deck would destroy the boat. Your boat, your risks, your choice.

My outside cold storage was a Shipshape custom cover, like @Sailfanatic shows. His is the "deluxe" version with the vertical ties to the shrouds to keep water out (the little tents). I could not afford the $900 shrink-wrap fee annually, and the cover paid for itself in two years. The Shipshape cover only requires a 2 x 6 on the foredeck between bow and mast to provide a peak for the roof. After the first year, assembly takes a single person about 2 hours, mainly tying those hold-downs, and the heaviest part is the 2 x 6 that was about 13 feet long. The first year of any new cover takes about double the time of subsequent years as you need to get everything to fit and cut to size. Other products require you to assemble a frame and then cover it, and that was always a long process for my yard-mates. BTW: Shipshape is a small Minnesota shop, so it may be too late for them to produce a cover for this winter as they are really popular in the Midwest. Lots of advice here on winter storage, and Mainesail has a huge post on winterizing plumbing. My point that most people forget is to push a cut portion of a dish scrunchy in all of your through-hulls to prevent wasps building homes up there.

Capt Robbie · Oct 15, 2022

I have a custom cove and stopped using it because of the huge hassle of installing it
Now I just put small disposable tarp over the cockpit area using a simple a frame wooden brace , good enough to keep snow and ice out of cockpit
Tied and stapled to the frame then secured it to the deck
Marina approved it

the rest of the boat is exposed, boats are designed to be in the elements

Dalliance · Oct 15, 2022

I would never even consider leaving my boat uncovered through a Chicago winter. Way too much chance of leaves, snow and ice collecting in the cockpit and causing damage. Plus I want my non-skid paint and teak protected from the weather during the six months a year the boat is on the hard. I’ve been having the yacht yard shrink wrap my boat every year and have never seen it fail in even the worst of winters. Aside from environmental concerns, shrink wrap is pretty worry free. And it can be recycled.

I actually priced out a custom canvas cover last winter and figured it would pay for itself in three to four years depending on the options selected, but I didn’t pull the trigger. It made perfect sense financially, but I had second thoughts about spending an afternoon putting it on in the cold November wind, storage space, and the weight and bulk of the cover. I injured my shoulder four years ago carrying a sail bag down the extension ladder from the deck, spent six months in physical therapy and it still bothers me. It’s so easy, and safe, to just have the yacht yard shrink wrap the boat in the fall and then I spend 30 minutes in the spring to slice it off, let it drop to the ground and drag it over to the recycling. To me the cost of shrink wrapping is the price of convenience, peace of mind and injury avoidance.

sailme88 · Oct 16, 2022

Location, Location, Location... It really depends on where you are.. Sounds like you are either at PYS or MYC..Check with Aspasia, South Port, Brewer's, or any of the 3 on the Royal River. A 28 footer is an easy unstep... why not take her home ?

JBP-PA · Oct 16, 2022

One of the advantages I like about canvas over shrink wrap is that you can open up part of the canvas on warm days while working on the hard and then close it up again when you are done.

Tally Ho · Oct 16, 2022

Dalliance said:
I would never even consider leaving my boat uncovered through a Chicago winter. Way too much chance of leaves, snow and ice collecting in the cockpit and causing damage. Plus I want my non-skid paint and teak protected from the weather during the six months a year the boat is on the hard. I’ve been having the yacht yard shrink wrap my boat every year and have never seen it fail in even the worst of winters. Aside from environmental concerns, shrink wrap is pretty worry free. And it can be recycled.

I actually priced out a custom canvas cover last winter and figured it would pay for itself in three to four years depending on the options selected, but I didn’t pull the trigger. It made perfect sense financially, but I had second thoughts about spending an afternoon putting it on in the cold November wind, storage space, and the weight and bulk of the cover. I injured my shoulder four years ago carrying a sail bag down the extension ladder from the deck, spent six months in physical therapy and it still bothers me. It’s so easy, and safe, to just have the yacht yard shrink wrap the boat in the fall and then I spend 30 minutes in the spring to slice it off, let it drop to the ground and drag it over to the recycling. To me the cost of shrink wrapping is the price of convenience, peace of mind and injury avoidance.

My cover is in 3 pieces and it zips together at the joints. Getting each section up isn’t too hard. Having to wrestle the whole thing up would be very difficult. I can also put the 3 sections on the boat while still in the water, and then I dont have to lift them up on a ladder.

it takes me a couple of hours to cover mine, including tying all of the lines under the hull to keep the cover tight.

It just seems more environmentally friendly and less wasteful (and I think less costly) than using shrink wrap. But then again, I have some guys in my marina that try to reuse their shrink wrap…that doesn’t usually work too well.

Greg

Dalliance · Oct 16, 2022

Tally Ho said:
My cover is in 3 pieces and it zips together at the joints. Getting each section up isn’t too hard. Having to wrestle the whole thing up would be very difficult. I can also put the 3 sections on the boat while still in the water, and then I dont have to lift them up on a ladder.

it takes me a couple of hours to cover mine, including tying all of the lines under the hull to keep the cover tight.

It just seems more environmentally friendly and less wasteful (and I think less costly) than using shrink wrap. But then again, I have some guys in my marina that try to reuse their shrink wrap…that doesn’t usually work too well.

Greg

Good point about putting the cover in the boat before haul out. I now take my sails off the boat and to the sail loft before haul out for obvious reasons. The cover I priced was two or three zipped sections above deck and I was considering an additional section or two to cover the hull from toe rail down to waterline. The cover is definitely less expensive in the long run but another half day chore twice a year.
I can’t recall seeing anyone try to re-use shrink wrap, but it has probably happened in my yacht yard too. I see the blue and gray tarp failures every year though, and I’ve had to dodge the hanging water filled plastic jugs some use to hold them down. Real easy to understand why the OP’s yacht yard said no more tarps.

Apex · Oct 16, 2022

found this a good way to prevent tarp grommets from tearing out......and if you have a dog, a much nicer spring ritual. Bonus, it is also much softer than gallon jugs of ice bouncing against the hull.
Custom covers are a much nicer solution. I now store inside, unheated. just lay a tarp across with no tie downs (birds....)

Parsons · Oct 17, 2022

So here's a great learning for those storing on the hard - move all the heavy stuff on or off your boat before she leaves the dock going to the lift. It is so much easier throwing an unwieldy 40 pound cover part or sail bag over the lifeline from the dock than trying to haul it up 10 feet on a ladder.

If you do find yourself having to haul something heavy while on the hard, remember you are sailors not roofers! Rig a hoist to a halyard, and put that weight on a winch to raise or lower. It does not take a minute to throw a extra line around a bundle in two directions and clip it to a shackle.

Winter Cover

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