Cover for Core Sound

[DawnS]

Some of the recent posts on maintenance work has me wanting to work on a more permanent boat cover.  We have to store the "Dawn Patrol" outside on it's trailer, and right now have it covered with a large inexpensive tarp from Walmart.

What kind of covering are other's using to cover thier Core Sounds or other boats outside.  What is considered the ideal cover material?  Sunbrella?  Did you make a custom fit cover that straps around the hull?  Any info on what other's are doing would be helpful.

Thanks, Dawn

[Ken_Potts]

   If you're storing Dawn Patrol next to the house you might be able to put together a fairly attractive fabric lean-to (think awning) that you can park the boat under.  As long as the boat is dry, out of the sun and has air circulation it would be just like parking it in a garage.  Sunbrella's good.  If you want to save some money, though, you could use a less uv-resistant fabric (cordura?) And paint it.  The paint thing would work better for a lean-to than for a removeable boat cover that will be rolled up or folded.

[inboil]

I have been pleased with a hoop house I made for my Laughing Gull ( granted a much smaller boat than Core Sound at 16'x about 4'6'') . Cost about $75 for 8x6x20 open ended with silver tarp. Good air circulation, back right up to hook up trailer,hang oars from hoops,etc. Wish I had done a story and a half (longer hoops/same width) and hung my Birder from the hoops. Thought about it, but went minimal as first experiment in hoophousedom.

[paul_stewart]

Oh you know, Ray.  Yer basic hoop house.  The plans for building a couple of em are right there on the Maine Pumpkin Growers Organization website: www.mainepumpkins.com/hoophouse.html.   (Their illustrations, shown below.)   See, you can store yer boat and/or pumpkin.   

Yep, before they flood the field to harvest the pumpkins with their boats, they use hoop houses to shade their pumpkins and/or boats.  Apparently they have to put a motor on the really big ones to bring them into port to market.

The thing about a hoop house though is that it seems seasonal:  what do you do when a blizzard, Nor'easter, or hurricane comes through?    (Last illustration is from Norman Coulter; a man who knows blizzards.)

Currently, we have a 30foot by 20foot tarp over our CS20.  Looks like a puppy sleeping under a rug.  It is essentially a hoop house without the hoops.

We would need an extra-strong hoop house design to stand up to big winds.   Inboil?

[inboil]

Yah the hoophouse is probably best suited as a seasonal solution to the boat cover dilema.But here in central NC that's apretty long season.

    I noticed that Garry,Jim Stumpf,Tom and of course Norm had a short hoophouse discussion some time ago.But that seemed more as a boatbuilding shed which really pushes the envelope of hoophousedom(to the breaking point in Norm's case).

  I believe the concept to be variable enough for harsher climes,but those variations bring extra money and more time. When the real winds blow and that white crap falls from the sky my boats will find a hard shell .My little hoop has endured short bursts of 40 mph winds in severe t-storms and two bigtime hailstorms (quarter size hail and lots of trashed automobiles). That's all I ask of this structure. That and make my boat more easily accessible.

  Mine is made up of 1" plastic conduit (cheaper than schedule 40but perhaps not as good) on about 4' centers,laced on gables, 3 horizontal purlins of 5/4x2 leftover treated wood attached to hoops by conduit straps- held down with 1/4" line and a 12x20 silver tarp over top. Build time was less than a day. Head scratching time ( I believe some call this planning or maybe even thinking) was most of late winter.

    Interesting info:  U of New Mexico hoophouse site bends 2" pipe and claims to be good for 50 mph and a whopping 8" of white crap. In my mind the skin is the limiting factor--- anybody knows a better semi-reasonable material please let me know.

    $75 did not include some junk I had lying around (wood, screws,chunks of 4x4) so if you don't have junk cost might be a tad more.

   

[paul_stewart]

Inboil,

Thanks for the post.  After 6 months of UV exposure here in Chapel Hill, NC, the plastic finish is starting to flake off of the cheapo huge floppy 30'x20' tarp drapped over our CS20.  Seems to have let a lot of moisture go through during the most recent hard rain.  I think I've got a workable hoophouse plan and will need to give that a try.  Challenge is that it will be visible from the street and I'll have to make it look attractive / presentable to the neighbors.  Hmmm.....  Ken Potts ideas (a few posts back Aug 13) are sounding good.

--Paul 

[Cricket]

I use a stock cover from Hamilton Marine http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse.cfm/4,25446.html made for power boats. The fit is not perfect, but it is fairly rugged, and breathable. I built a light weight ladder type A frame that is supported by a crutch in the mast hole, and sits on a foam block on the aft deck. This sheds rain and snow here in NYC. I'm sure Defender has similar covers. A custom fit is best by far, but expensive! This one is $117.00 I also have a pair of Andersen bailers that I keep open on land to drain any stray water that finds its way in, and bails the boat on a reach as well of course.

Jim Luton