Winter, to cover the Boat or not

RichBone · Oct 14, 2011

I shrinkwrap my boat with a frame underneath so I can work on the boat also. I like the idea of keeping the deck dry, especially an old one like mine. I'm afraid of getting moisture in all the stress cracks and having it freeze and making it worse.

Rich

Lost Parent · Oct 14, 2011

Hi there ...I am from Airdrie and I am sitting on my boat in Sidney BC right now with my brand new winter cover just installed . Personally knowing the weather you and me both have back at home i would get a winter cover and tie it down real well . It also depends on the cover itself and how well it fits . I f you want to see some pictures of one I will be back home sunday night . Be forwarned covers are not cheap for a good one. The amount of snow is not much of an issue as most of it is dry and blows off It is the standing water after a thaw that freezes

Joe11688 · Oct 15, 2011

I've been covering my boat with a large polytarp for years. When I first started covering my boat, my tarps would always get torn because I was tying the tarp wrong, but then I discovered a better way to tie off the tarp so that it no longer rips. Polytarps are pretty cheap. I think I paid about $53.00 for the tarp I have right now.
I take my boat off the trailer and put it on stands every year but I've left it on the trailer in previous years and still was able to cover my boat next to my house. I always jack the trailer off the ground for the winter regardless. What I do every year is strip my mast of everything except the halyards, and wrap the mast with long pieces of old 2' wide polytarp for chafe protection and use the mast as a ridge pole for my main tarp.
My boat has two mast crutches and I tie the mast to them.
All I do is drape my 30'X18' tarp over the mast and get it nice and even. Then I fold one end of the tarp around the end of the mast and tie a rope around it using a clove hitch and some half hitches. I go to the other end of the mast and pull the tarp nice and tight and do the same thing on that end.
All that is left is to take a 100' X 3/16" line and tie the end to the boat stand under the bow of the boat, and throw the line over the boat and under it in a spiral fashion, pulling the slack out of it as I go along and tie it off at the end to one of my boat stands under the stern. I then tie off the tarp at the stern end to my gudgions with another rope, leaving an opening for air to circulate inside.
For the bow, I take a 4' piece of 2" strapping and roll the two ends of the tarp around it and use a carpenter's spring clamp to hold the rolled tarp to the strapping close to the bow of the boat. I usually tie another rope over that to keep it from unrolling on windy days.
All I can say is, this works for me and my tarp is three years old and still looks as good as the day I bought it with no rips whatsoever.
I keep my CDI roller furler on a long beam down my cellar and my outboard is sitting on a stand down there with the lower unit draining.
I make an effort to keep the snow off the tarp during the winter months by going into the boat and pushing out against the tarp with my back. Outside of that, my tarp has a pretty good pitch on it to shed rain.
Joe

OdayDave · Oct 16, 2011

I've put tarps over mine (first my 222 and now my 25) for years and have never once seen any gel coat damage from a flapping tarp. I secure it with a lot of bungies and I check it from time to time. I have used the mast (with a separate tarp wrapped around it) to avoid things on the mast (tangs, lights, etc.) from chaffing through the main tarp. I also used some small 10 ft pvc bent over the mast and attached to the base of the stanchions to keep the tarp bowed out so it doesn't collect snow and water. The tarp keeps things nice and dry on the deck, and while I don't work on it over the winter, I do check on it from time to time. Rbone's frame is pretty cool so I may try to fabricate something like that for mine this year.

However, leaving it uncovered would invite problems. I would not want a cockpit full of snow and ice generating popups in the gelcoat. My advise is to keep it covered.

Dave
s/v Lagniappe
O'Day 25

Peter18046 · Oct 17, 2011

For my 1976 OD25: I assemble a wooden "fish skeleton" frame, as seen from the top. I made it from 2x3's lapped a foot and bolted together(use two bolts about 8 inches apart) for the ridgepole. Custom-cut for the boat's LOA. The mast (spreaders removed) rests on its side, antenna/electrical wire holes down, and is tied to the bow and stern pulpits and is stored under the ridgepole. The ridgepole is supported by vertical 2x3's at the bow, tabernacle, bridge deck and rear of the cockpit, all cut so that the ridgepole rests level on top of the boat. These vertical 2x3's are attached to the ridgepole using angle irons screwed into the wood on each side. This structure is then tied to the lifeline stanchion bases with 1/8th nylon line serving as guylines. These guylines are criss-crossed so as to provide lateral and end-to-end support against movement. Of course, there will be some "flexibility" to the structure.
"Rafters" made from 1x3 wooden lath, and run port and starboard from the ridgepole to the sides of the boat. They are attached to the ridgepole every 2 feet by tying them together using 1/2" nylon line long enough to have a figure-eight knot at each end (for easy disassambly). The rafter ties are passed thru holes drilled in the ends of the lath and sides of the holes drilled in the ridgepole. The rafter ties are tied with a figure eight knot so that they are tightly held against the ridgepole. The outboard ends of the rafters are custom-cut and drilled so that they can be tied with 1/8th nylon line to two 8 ft. sections of lath lapped and secured to the tops of the stanchions on the port and starboard sides to make up an outside "frame".
Extra precautions: Be sure heat-seal all ends of the pieces of line you make up for all the tie points. Be generous in selecting line lengths for easy knotting and tying. Use scrap carpeting to pad strategically. Use stanchion bases, the outboard "frame", boat cleats, lifelines, and bow and stern pulpits as tie points. In my case, I use a 15x30 poly tarp to cover the frame. It reaches about 1 ft. below the gunwales, covers both the bow and stern adequately, and allows for good airflow. The tarp is tied together fore and aft and to the cradle. I use a long section of 1/8th at the stern as a "shoelace" to tie the tarp closed and to provide an easy entrance to the cockpit. A plastic bag sealed with masking tape seals off the exposed masthead (whip antenna and windex removed) and prevents water from seeping into the mast during winter layup. Use 1/2 piece of paper towel to pass through and cushion all tarp grommets (both the empty grommets and the line tied ones) to prevent the wind from making those black gelcoat marks. Again, when the structure is assembled and tied together, it looks like a fish skeleton as seen from the top. It's a very sturdy structure and easily disassembled for summer storage.
---Pete on LI

Lost Parent · Oct 17, 2011

Just got back to Airdrie from Sidney and my new cover WOW
Cover was made by Lohamm boat covers on Vancouver Island , he custom makes and ships anywhere,After seeing this cover and how warm it gets under the cover from just sunlight I would never be without one again Lots of room to still work under cover in winter as we plan to do
Email me if you want more info Tom

ebsail · Oct 18, 2011

I don't tie the cover down to the boat. I just hang milk jugs filled with water/non toxic antifreeze mix, to the tarp grommets with short lines. That way the jugs hang below the water line and don't touch the hull. Four jugs per side is sufficient for a 25 footer.. A heavy snow load allows the tarp to sag if neccessary and when it melts, the tarp comes back to shape. Done this for 5 years and no problems Ernie

LordNelson · Oct 24, 2011

i cover mainly to keep water off the deck and out of the core and to keep leaves from clogging the cockpit drain so that it doesn't overflow into the cabin.

djplatt@cogeco.ca · Oct 24, 2011

I cover the boat but don't bring the cover down the topsides. I used to tie it down to the cradle but the hull gets very dirty from the cover and lines flapping. Now I secure a 1x2 along the bottom of the stanchian posts and end the cover there.

Lost Parent · Oct 29, 2011

Lohmann boat covers on Vancouver island tell Chris Tom from Airdrie Alberta sent you I still love it , even had some folks from Seattle stay on boat and they commented with heater going full inside it was still warmer outside under the cover due to the dark color , they are going to order one for there boat in the states. Let me know what happens

Lost Parent · Oct 29, 2011

Im soory I only got a few pictures of the cover and am having a hard time uploding them , still trying

Lost Parent · Oct 29, 2011

Check pictures above ...Tom

Lost Parent · Oct 30, 2011

3 grand but good for a lot of years and you can take it off and on whenever you want as well yours may be cheaper due to size ...check his website for size and price chart

DharmaBum · Nov 7, 2011

I used to cover my O'Day 25 with big tarps, but don't do so any longer. She's stored on the Illinois/Wisconsin border off of Lake Michigan on a cradle with her mast up.

Last year I didn't have time to get the tarps up. After doing the usually winterizing to the engine, lower unit, water systems and so forth, I simply stripped off all the running rigging, stored the boom below, covered the vents (except the solar vent and grill on the main hatch cover), the winches, the mast from the deck to above the spinnaker ring and all of the jib-reefing hardware. The boat came through the very bad 2010-11 Illinois/Wisconsin winter cleaner than she ever did under the tarps, with no trapped dirt or leaves, the bilge dry and empty and the deck clean and in good shape. The only down side was that the more varnish peeled off the teak hand rails than usual, but I touch them up every spring regardless.

I learned that unless I can do a real thorough job covering the boat, may as well leave it uncovered altogether. And with the mast up, it's very hard for me to fit the tarps. It helped that they put her cradle on a little slant aft, so the cockpit drained easily. So now I'm of the no cover school.

Indysailor · Nov 8, 2011

I have part of the cabin top covered because I've removed the mast step and want it to dry out as much as possible over the winter. Otherwise, I probably would not cover the boat at all. If I did, I would have to construct something to raise the mast higher up. As it is, it seems like snow and rain would collect in the tarp and create a real headache.

Winter, to cover the Boat or not

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