kit me

Winter Cover

Last winter was the first time I had to deal with a boat (no less a wooden boat) in wet storage. I only reached Huntington on November 24th, so I didnt have much time to prepare for the onslaught of the Winter of 2010 -- the year the word Snowmageddon was coined.

I blogged about it at the time, and vowed to make a winter cover for this year, to avoid having to shovel the poor Blue Moon, as we did -- seemingly on a weekly basis -- last year.

Shoveling a foot of snow off the Blue Moon Winter 2010

The plan was to use my moms old sewing machine to make one of those lush, full-length covers you see on some boats. However, after pricing the amount of Sunbrella Id need, and assessing all the work involved (sewing is NOT my favorite craft), I decided to try something a bit simpler.

I found a supplier of American-made, 18oz, treated canvas and purchased a 12x12 and 8x10 tarp from Amazon. The quality of the American Canvas tarp is really outstanding, I must say. The canvas itself is thick, heavy, and treated with something or other to make it water resistant. The seams are well sewn, and the brass grommets are heavily reinforced. Its weight, I thought, would prevent it from flogging itself to death, as Ive seen happen with lighter material in heavy winds. And we do get some heavy winds here, in winter.

American Canvas tarp

The 12x12 tarp has 4 grommets on each side; the 8x10 has 4 grommets on the long side and 3 on the short. There were two problems to be solved:

1. how to fasten the edges of the tarp to the side deck
2. how to suspend the tarp over the boom, so as to best shed snow

Configuration #1 - note hoop in middle

Another problem, obviously, is the opening at the back. However the bow is pointing to the west and our prevailing winds are from the southwest, so I was hoping this opening would not let too much snow in.

Oh, the bliss of ignorance!

Over stern

This week, in mid January, we finally had our first snow, about 2 inches. Quite a difference from last year, and Im not complaining.

After 1st snow

For the most part, the snow is on the tarp, rather than on my paint, so that is a success... Here in the east, the snow is quite dirty. It looks white, but in reality, there is a lot of grit and grime embedded in the snow. When it melts, it leaves behind a dirty residue. The primary goal of the tarps is to keep the sun and grime off my poor paint. In this regard, Ill give it a grade of Not Bad.

Wheres my hoop?

However, I did get a good dusting of snow in the cockpit, and I presume in the anchor well (I didnt climb onboard to check.) Im not sure if it was the opening, or the fact that snow can blow under the edges of the canvas. I guess I should have gotten out of bed at 2am and gone down to the boat with a flashlight to see which way the snow was blowing in, but my alarm didnt go off (yeah, right!)

A bit of snow drifted inside

However, there certainly would have been more snow in the cockpit without the cover, so Ill have to also give this a Not Bad grade.

Less successful was the PVC rib or batten. The 1" pipe just wasnt strong enough, I guess.

As soon as the snow melts off (were due for some rain tonight), Im going to try reconfiguring the tarps using the information gathered with this trial. For Configuration #2, Im going to try:

• thicker PVC pipe for the ribs... the thickest I can bend
• 2 sets of ribs, instead of just one
• close up the gap between the tarps
• put something over the opening at the stern... probably one of my small, home-made tarps. 

If you have any clever ideas to share, particularly about how to hold the edges of the tarp down to the rail without a bunch of eye pads, Id love to hear them.

Spring is coming, right???


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