Covering Up For Winter

[taz4]

Hello,

does anyone have any ideas on how to cover my boat for the winter? I was going to buy a tarp and place it over the boom (I was hoping to leave my mast up) and cover the cockpit, do I need to build a frame to keep the snow off? Should I tape up the ports? Any info on what other people do in the lake erie region would be greatly appreciated?

Is also easy to detach the roller furling sail?

Many thanks

taz

 

[Emerald]

I would size the tarp so that it does not overlap the side of the hull, but instead reaches the deck, and then tie it off to stanchion bases etc. The reason for not covering the hull, or running a line down the side and under and back up to the other side is that I have seen many a nice gelcoat/paint job get banged up pretty bad when the wind starts blowing and the tarp starts moving around some. Probably not a bad idea to build a couple simple upside down Vs to support the tarp from snow collapsing it inward. Probably ought to use 2x4s, but I do have a slip nieghbor who has had good luck bowing PVC pipe. I think he has found bending the PVC pipe in a big arch is better than joining two pieces with a 90 elbow.

What type of furler do you have? Most of the time, it is as simple as pulling the sail out, and then releasing the genoa halyard, and pulling it down off the foil - just like a hank on sail, but a bolt in a groove instead of piston hanks over a wire stay.

 

[CaptnNero]

cargo net bungees

After trying various approaches, I've had the most satisfaction using cargo net bungees available at Home Deport, Walmart, or Kmart. It takes two stretched from the toerail on each side to the top of the boom and a third one across the aft cockpit to make enough support to shed most of the precipitation we get on the Chesapeake.

However I did have to do some snow removal from the lower portions of the tarp when we had about two feet of snow once. Also it seems to depend on the orientation of the boat to the sun and wind as to where and how much accumulation you get on a side. The sunny side melts any accumulation off much faster.

For the bow I hung the middle of a long 1.5" pvc pipe from a spinnaker halyard and ran some used sheet line (low stretch) thru the inner pipe from the mast at the boom height to the bowsprit. Another bungee was stretched over that from the toerails on both sides.

Then plastic tarps were layed over that and folded under on one side near the toe rail to make the tarp fit well. I made it overlap the toerail and attached removable plastic tarp clips. I used more low stretch line to the clips to weave it tightly back and forth under the hull. David makes a good point about gelcoat wear but our lines were tight enough that it just couldn't flap around.

Our current boat came with a custom canvas cover and after two winters I must say that it is very nice to work with. If I didn't have one already I'd probably make one based on our current experience.

Many people use gallon jugs of water hanging over the sides from the tarp but sometimes those start oscillating around and pounding on the hull.

 

[rwthomas1]

I just purchased a Fairclough "boom tent" for my E38. It was far from cheap but it should last about 10 years or so with care. It will make setting up for the winter very easy. RT

http://www.faircloughsailmakers.com/

 

[Mindscape]

Covering for the winter

We're in the Chicago area and we use two tarps joined just ahead of the mast over a frame that supports the tarps. It is important to support the tarps so that snow does not collect. I prefer to use 2x4's and not link them to the stanchions, so that the stanchions don't take any of the weight of the canvas or the cyclic movement of the tarps in the wind. I've seen many different frames, my PO did use PVC, which worked when he shrink wraped but did collapse under the weight of a bunch of snow. After looking more closely at his arangement I decided it was probably a bad design and that PVC could probably work if better designed.

My tarps extend over the side and cover the topsides of the boat. As mentioned earlier be careful to not let any lines or groments in the tarp mare the gelcoat. I tie my tarps off to the cradle keeping them clear of the gelcoat. This setup has worked well for me on me e32 for a couple of years and for the 11 years I had my prior boat. I've always stored witht the mast up.

My $.02.