WInter canvas cover instead of Shrink

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Robski97

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I'm on the thought of either no shrink next year or maybe a winter cover. just a partial cover. I'm only shrink wrapped to the rub rail so protecting the hull sides I'm not. SO what is the shrink really doing ? I can easily swap out my canvas back drop for something the snow wont weight down. the slope of the bow doesn't really let a lot snow accumulate... so anything I'm missing ?

Rob
 
Where are you located and how much snow and or freezing rain to you get? I am in Western NY and wouldn't dream of using my cover instead of shrink wrap. Also are you near your your boat so that you can easily check on it and brush snow off if necessary?
 
Rob,
The cover or shrink wrap prevents water from going into small spaces, freezing and creating cracks or leaks. Snow in itself is not an issue if you are on land but the melting and freezing is the issue. It also protects you strataglass if you leave you canvas on over the winter.

A winter cover can pay for itself over a few seasons but needs to be big enough to extend below the water line. It gets strapped under the hull and you don't want anything rubbing against a painted hull. Some guys use a frame under it on the foredeck. Others use lines strung so as to keep it from bowing in and collecting water. Check with the coverguy on THT.

My.02
 
Best Buy in every way. Check out www.gencomarine.com. Or any number of US sources. Top is not canvas and given the outer colour is grey, inside white and gives ample light to enable winter work projects. Have pictures but do not know how to up load. My boat, 381 CC Catalina, has been winter dressed for four winters and has suffered no issues. During that time with stood hvy winds and Georgian Bay snow.
 
I got a cheap winter cover for my kids 18' bowrider this year to give it a try. If I get two or three years out of it I'm ahead of the game. The one downside of it that I can already see is having to store it in season. It's a pretty small cover and is going to be a minor PIA to store. I can't imagine what a pain in would be to store one for something like my 410 Sundancer.
 
I have considered this in the past myself.
You can't go without.
I also only wrap to rubrail but that is enough to protect the nooks and crannies above.
Think about hardtop.
Think bowrail mounts.
Anchor locker.
It doesn't take much water.
It looks like my boat had some trapped in the radar arch one year and it cracked the fiberglass.
That must of happened before I shrinkwrapped and it was already in there.

I priced out a fisher cover once.

http://www.fishercanvas.com/

When you look at the cost of the cover, cost of the materials to make a support system, then you have to put the support system up every year, store all that crap every year, etc.
Cost does not out justify the hassle in my view.
Cover is like $6K - wrap my boat is $500, that is 12 years.

Buy a roll of shrinkwrap tape and fix the cover you have!
 
On our previous boat, a 24' Chaparral, I used a system called "Kover Klamps" which used lengths of electrical pipe to make a framework which is covered by a tarp. The framework and cover were re-usable and did a great job. of protecting the boat. I had to stop using it when we switched marinas and the new one wouldn't allow any tarps. Our present boat, a 34' Cruisers, is shrink wrapped because we downsized from our house to a co-op and I no longer have a place to store the cover or the framework. Using shrink wrap is, to my thinking, environmentally bad, but I have no choice. Maybe, for next season, I'll try to convince on of our kids to store everything during the summer in their basement. Google the system and consider it. Hy
 
My previous boat came with a Fisher canvas cover. It was heavy as hell, but worked great. I had it for ten years, and it as still in good condition. Fisher will pick it up in the spring and patch it for a minimal cost, store it and return it in the fall.
 
Rob, you must cover the boat because ice is your enemy! I also got sick of shrink wrap and bought a winter cover. I went to www.coveranything.com and bought a fitted cover for my boat and it does fit excellent. The framework for the cover was the work. I ended up buying the strapping the shrink wrap guys use and framed it like it was being shrink wrapped. Your boat is big so you might have to go for a custom cover. I like the Fisher covers as they sew all the support pockets in all you do is add two by fours. They were pricy but the longevity is probably worth it.
Rob
 
FML!!!
ITs a grand a year to wrap. I think they do more damage wrapping the damn thing then show and ice ever would .

LET ME PONDER .....

Rob
 
Grand a year for your boat is too much.
Like I said I paid $550, 500 to wrap and $50 to wash it before wrap!
For my aching back this is easy and done quick.
The covers to me sound great, look great, but then I watch guys work all day to put up the frame and put cover on, then reverse in spring and I just don't see the value (not in $, but in time and effort)

my .02
 
quote:
Originally posted by CurrentSea

Grand a year for your boat is too much.
Like I said I paid $550, 500 to wrap and $50 to wash it before wrap!
For my aching back this is easy and done quick.
The covers to me sound great, look great, but then I watch guys work all day to put up the frame and put cover on, then reverse in spring and I just don't see the value (not in $, but in time and effort)

my .02

Click to expand...


Either your boat is configured such that it makes for an easy shrink-wrapping job, or your shrink-wrap guy is in your debt. For a 41' boat, $500 would be bottom-floor enough to make me consider whether I even wanted the job and try to find time to come out and quote it. Then again, if it's an easy job, still have the framing and padding from the year before, owner hasn't attempted any of the work to cost themselves more money, and it could be done with 24x or 28x, $500 is probably about where I'd have come in - in ten years ago dollars, for an existing customer. I have no idea what plastic even runs nowadays, though. I haven't done any moonlighting at all for a good 8 years or so.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Robski97

FML!!!
ITs a grand a year to wrap. I think they do more damage wrapping the damn thing then show and ice ever would .

LET ME PONDER .....

Rob

Click to expand...


Over $20/ft? Way too much. I assume this is a boatyard. See if there's an independent guy in your area. Might even be able to talk one of them into attempting to rig the shrink-wrap so you can re-use it next year. Not easy, not impossible, not always possible, but for a one-off customer and the right price, you can probably get someone to do it. They're going to have to plan where and how to seam it, and you'd have to pay VERY close attention to how the framing, padding, and strapping was run when you take it off. Don't even mention watching how they rig it so you can do it next year - no matter your intent, it sounds like "I'd like to get in your way while you work and make sure you run out of daylight to get that one more job done that day, letting you get further behind from rain/wind days". Except for the boatyards I contracted with, I almost always worked alone, and was most efficient that way. I had it down to where every trip up or down or alongside the boat was for a purpose both ways. There was no stopping, pausing, or wasted motions. (My boatyard contracts, two of us could start at first light and work through to sunset and knock out more work than you'd think someone not getting paid by the hour could.)

A Sundancer - I'm not sure how I'd rig that to be re-usable. You don't want to make a seam on the quarters that will leave strapping rubbing on the gelcoat. Bow is the easiest place to do it, as well as the absolute worst place to do it. Maybe do something under the swim platform, if you have one.

But over $20/ft just for wrapping is too much, unless it's something like a Grand Banks. I would bill a $100 flat charge to come out, look at a Grand Banks to remind myself of what an absolute nightmare they are to shrink-wrap so I could turn around and run away without looking back. Each of the two boatyards I contracted with had one on the list - I just paid the guy that worked with me $100 on top to do them while I knocked out a few sailboats. Absolutely HATED wrapping trawlers.

For $1k, you could do it yourself - probably for two years.
 
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