Covering boat for the Long Winter

[mrron_tx]

Mastreb....I sure like the looks of Your trailer I do not like the factory single at all Is Yours a factory made or home made?? I sure would like to find a good one for My

[mrron_tx]

Hmmmm.... Belay My last. It was Russ Mt's trailer......ooops.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Thanks for the tips Dave, I hope to find the time to do that this winter and make it look nice for a change. Sounds like about 10-15 hours worth of work though

[DaveB]

Lot more than 15 hrs, maybe you can find cheap labor to do most of the work.
Ya it's a pain but it's worth it.
Treat Ya boat as it was Family.
Dave

Thanks for the tips Dave, I hope to find the time to do that this winter and make it look nice for a change. Sounds like about 10-15 hours worth of work though

[Russ]

Hmmmm.... Belay My last. It was Russ Mt's trailer......ooops.

The second axle was something I added this season. The aluminum trailer makes it pretty easy to do. I ordered the parts (axle) from a trailer shop and the wheels online. Fenders also online. Got most of the advice from others on this forum. It was fairly easy to do. I've only trailered it home and to the storage lot, but it is MUCH more stable and I feel better about the whole thing. My boat is heavy. 70hp Suzi and lots of fuel, gear etc. This just feels solid. I think I have about $1,000 into the mod. Worth the white knuckles I had while driving the single axle. Best thousand bucks I've spent on the boat.

I've got the cover down to a science now. Take less than 2 hours to attach the poles, cover it up and lace the whole mess up. Admrial helps with the lacing of the cover. This is year 5 and we get some nasty winds (60+mph) and it all holds up well. I've left the solar panels attached and batts onboard. Keeps 'em topped off and I don't have to trickle charge them over the winter. So far so good.

In my opinion, this is the easiest way to cover your MAC. Snow, wind, it holds up. I do reinforce some places, but the tension of the tarp seems to hold most of it all in place. We get some ice pockets, but it holds it all okay.

--Russ

[dlandersson]

I'm working on the solar panel thing ... trying to figure out where to put them.

Hmmmm.... Belay My last. It was Russ Mt's trailer......ooops.

The second axle was something I added this season. The aluminum trailer makes it pretty easy to do. I ordered the parts (axle) from a trailer shop and the wheels online. Fenders also online. Got most of the advice from others on this forum. It was fairly easy to do. I've only trailered it home and to the storage lot, but it is MUCH more stable and I feel better about the whole thing. My boat is heavy. 70hp Suzi and lots of fuel, gear etc. This just feels solid. I think I have about $1,000 into the mod. Worth the white knuckles I had while driving the single axle. Best thousand bucks I've spent on the boat.

I've got the cover down to a science now. Take less than 2 hours to attach the poles, cover it up and lace the whole mess up. Admrial helps with the lacing of the cover. This is year 5 and we get some nasty winds (60+mph) and it all holds up well. I've left the solar panels attached and batts onboard. Keeps 'em topped off and I don't have to trickle charge them over the winter. So far so good.

In my opinion, this is the easiest way to cover your MAC. Snow, wind, it holds up. I do reinforce some places, but the tension of the tarp seems to hold most of it all in place. We get some ice pockets, but it holds it all okay.

--Russ

[Russ]

I'm working on the solar panel thing ... trying to figure out where to put them.

Attach it to the mast support arch. I used a simple hinge and some aluminum tubing.

[Wind Chime]

Hey RussMT:

It looks like you have the same problem as we have with a bent roller-furling luff-extrusion.

We wrap ours to the mast when in storage like you have done below, and have tried storing the extrusion in a black PVC tubing to heat it up and straighten it out, but at the end of the day it looks like yours. Not as noticeable once the mast is up and it is under tension

[Russ]

Well, actually, my furler extrusion is not in this photo. What I think you are seeing is the haylyards strapped to the mast. However, you are right, it gets bent and warped if left out.
Now, I remove it for the winter. I built a "shelf" to store it in my basement crawlspace beams so it lays perfectly flat and at room temp all winter. I had hoped it would eventually straighten out. It did somewhat, but still has some curves in it.

I like your idea of black PVC to heat and flatten it. I might try that when the weather warms up. Lay it flat on the deck inside a black tube. What kind of PVC tube is black? Heat is the only thing that I believe will straighten it. Maybe also with some tension to pull it straight.

--Russ

Hey RussMT:

It looks like you have the same problem as we have with a bent roller-furling luff-extrusion.

We wrap ours to the mast when in storage like you have done below, and have tried storing the extrusion in a black PVC tubing to heat it up and straighten it out, but at the end of the day it looks like yours. Not as noticeable once the mast is up and it is under tension

[Wind Chime]

Hey Russ,

On closer look of your photos, it was the lines wrapped to the mast that looked like your extrusion.

The black PVC I have is about 2" in diameter and used for plumbing, got from home depot. I do not have a lot of success using this method to straighten the extrusion because it doesn't stay warm enough in the winter where we are, and when it is warm enough its summer and well of course it's holding the mast up

I've tried the heat gun to the tube and directly to the extrusion in the past. Now I just accept the bends until I break down and spend the $250 or so to get a new one.

[beene]

Where I store my boat for the winter there is another M and an X as well.
The X stored there uses the best cover I have ever seen for a Mac
Check it out







G

[beene]

In past years I have covered mine like this







I have found that the angle from the mast to the stantions is too shallow to allow snow to slide off
It falls, does not slide off, builds, gets heavy, tarp pulls, builds more, etc etc

[beene]

So to solve this problem I did it this way last year and it worked great







Snow does not build up
Just slides off

G

[Russ]

Beene, that's a clever method and it looks like it works well.

Snow build up was a concern of mine. It does build up, but never caused a problem in 5 years. I have found large ice sections in the tarp. It all held the weight though without any damage.

[beene]

Hi Russ

Your second pic is what I am talking about

Snow builds due lack of run off angle

The more it builds, the heavier it gets

More weight on mast as tarp ends up on it

More weight on trailer

More weight on everything....

All depending on how bad your winter gets

More snow

More weight

I did what I did to stop that from happening

With this config, no build up ever

And I sleep well

Bring on the snow!

LOL

G