Over the tower cover for a 242LS

[sysinu]

Went out lake shore camping this weekend... we brought our Springbar (heavy high quality tent) and it got us to wondering why not bring our tent and instead just sleep on the boat....

My wife made that super clear to me very quickly when she said "bugs" so it got me to thinking if I could put something simple with lighter weight material to avoid that problem.

I have read the other posts (and the awesome writeup that Julian has on his cover that he made), and those fit the objectives that I have, I don't plan to boat camp a lot and want something that wouldn't require installing snaps.

What I envision is opening the bimini and securing it into place as normal, then take 4 strap lines and then secure them from the tower tow point to the 4 cleats that the premium cover attaches to. Then it would just be getting light weight material with a sewn in strap with buckles (just like the travel cover has) to cinch the cover down and avoid bugs.

I wouldn't be using this to avoid weather (so I can be pretty flexible with the material that I use)...

Anyone have thoughts or advice in case I am missing something obvious?

 

[Andy S]

I think you are on the right direction with your plans. It sounds like you will be basically making a boat cover (not for towing) that will go over the top of the tower and bimini top, that will be a lot of fabric. Don't forget about putting is some kind of access open with either a zipper or velcro and possibly screens for ventilation.

For fabric the wife and I recently made a boat cover skirt out of Marine One XP fabric that is similar to the factory boat cover for my 2007. We found it on ebay and was fairly reasonable in price, $5.95 a yard, http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=MARINE ONE fabric&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0&_nkw=MARINE ONE fabric&_sacat=0. This is flexible and light weight fabric.

We made a pocket in the fabric and ran 1/4" bungee cord through it which is used to hang the skirt from 4 cleats. I think a bungee cord method to attach your tent cover might be easier to use than ratchet straps.

 

[sysinu]

Thanks! This is really good information regarding the fabric and great feedback on ventilation.

Just to double click on your bungee cord idea real quick... did you run the cord through these pockets as a sleeve that went around the bottom of the entire cover or ... can you elaborate on that a little more? I need to make sure that I can keep out most all bugs, because that's the big thing and so it will need to be snug to the boat.

I also got to thinking of putting in some extra material around the board rack areas of the tower, since we'll want the board out of the way (and that will just give us more space anyway), but will need to make that material fairly stretchy/flexible in case we don't have boards out that there won't be a lot of drooping.

I was thinking a straight zipper at the bow and then a curved zipper on the stern with some sewn in ties.

I was thinking I could put in some velco windows but I have had trouble with these in the past (we have a bunch of ice fishing huts and if you bend the screens frequently they tend to break), so I will probably just put in some screens with velco or zipper to cover them. Will need to figure out how I want to do this so moisture doesn't just drip from them (as that will be the natural place for the dripping to happen).

Ventilation is a good point. I was thinking something near the tow point like what they do with umbrella's where they use a few spacers and then build a cap out of the same fabric, but now I'm thinking that's probably not enough ventilation so I might just build in two vents, both above the zipper access areas since the bow at anchor will likely be into the wind (of course if we're beached that is another story but I am sure those vents would be sufficient).

 

[0627Devildog]

Most importantly post pics and specs once complete!

 

[sysinu]

Just ordered the fabric . For sure I will post pics once it's done. We have an industrial sewing machine, so we will probably try to do it ourselves. I ended up not going with the Sunbrella fabric... it's just going to be way too heavy for our needs. Instead we are going with semi-translucent black coated 1.9 oz ripstop nylon (solarmax from noah lamport). Even though the cost is very similar to what a sunbrella would cost, I just can't justify the weight difference for how we plan to use it.

 

[Andy S]

@sysinu the bungee method I used was above the rumb rail with the skirt hanging below. The bungee runs through a pocket with it coming out the end and connect to the mid-cleat. My skirt is used to cover the colored gelcoat to prevent fading while my boat is stored at my house. The hull on my boat only has color about 2 feet below the rub rail.

For your needs, my thought is the bungee would be below the rumb rail. Just like the factory boat cover with a ratchet strap, the bungee would be in a pocket and run around the base of the cover with it coming out at the stern where it could hook on the transom tie downs. I used these hooks (see picture) with the bungee cord, these give plenty of flexibility. @JetBoatPilot had a custom boat cover on their website that used the bungee method that I think will work for you. Unfortunately I can't find the cover on the website to be able to show you.

 

[sysinu]

thanks andy! I'll have a look at those. That sounds along the lines of what I had in mind, just not set on how I want to cinch it up yet and this gives me a great option.

 

[Andy S]

My thought on cinching is that at the middle of the stern the ends of the bungee would come out and in a criss-cross pattern they would attach to the stern tie downs. In the below picture the red and blue lines represent the bungees coming out. The red bungee is from the port side and would attach to the starboard tie down and the blue is from the starboard side and would attach to the port tie down.

Since the cover won't be subjected to much wind pressure, unless a storm comes up, you don't need a lot of tension to hold the cover around the bottom of the rub rail.

 

[Gumbeaux]

Man I am seriously interested in this...watching...
Need to find someone near me who is good with a sewing machine...

 

[sysinu]

I ordered 40 yards of 60" wide 1.9oz nylon rip stop, 30 yards of 2" thick nylon strap, 4 buckle sets, 20 yards of 1.5" nylon strap (for the cinch chord), and once I get a feel for how much tension to put on it I will figure out which bungee's to use.

Once it gets here I will create a template for how to lay out the cover material and hopefully get a better idea of exactly how much material I will use . I suspect I will want to double up or reinforce quite a bit of material, particularly around the bow and stern corner areas. It will likely take me a while to get it all done, but for sure I will keep everyone posted on the progress . And of course, I will do so with plenty of visual aids.

 

[0627Devildog]

One thing I would consider is padding wherever it comes in contact with the Gelcoat/Paint that will have tension on it.

 

[robbo3]

Something like this would also be useful for a cover at the dock. The standard cover with straps, pols,etc is a royal pain when not on a trailer. I'd like something I can quickly throw over the tower for drainage and be done with it. I'm definitely interested in how yours turns out.

 

[sysinu]

Materials get in this week, wife is pregnant and about to pop so I have told my work I can't travel starting next week so I should at least be home to work on it! I'm hoping to have it finished by mid August, but I will absolutely make progress between now and then (and that progress will show up here).

 

[sysinu]

As an update... Probably next Wednesday I will be able to share pictures. The skirt follows a very similar line to what the deluxe cover takes, and I went with a band and ratchet approach. I have a zippered bow and aft boarding area. My Bow boarding has a built in window/screen. Then I have 3 additional windows (1 aft above the entry door way), and then another 2, above the windshield centered below the tower.

I can tell you that because of how far forward the swept tower is, I don't need any support structure near the bow, and then the amount of room inside the cockpit because of the bimini is awesome.

There are custom "socks" that are being sewn into the cover for my tower racks as well.

The only potential issue is how much room I have with the cover on and sitting on the platform. I may do something about that to make boarding and leisure on the swim platform better when the tent is deployed... but for now it's not that big of an issue.

 

[sysinu]

Pictures!

 

[sysinu]

Inside tour of the boat. threw this together before the rain started.

 

[OnTheWater]

Nice work - I told my local upholstery guy that I was watching this thread. Looks great!

 

[pagekl]

@sysinu, that is nice. You should think about selling these. I would be one of your first customers depending on the price.

 

[davel501]

@sysinu, that is nice. You should think about selling these. I would be one of your first customers depending on the price.

Yep. I really like that. If you don't want to sell the covers then consider making patterns available. This seems like the kind of thing that @JetBoatPilot would sell.

 

[sysinu]

I had Sugarhouse Awning make it for me. They pattern every boat cover they make before they order material, but I'm not sure if they hold onto the pattern. I told them that other people might be interested in buying one of these and asked them if they would be able to make multiples of the same thing for a discounted price (since they wouldn't have to pattern it again) and it didn't sound like they operated that way. I get the feeling that they have to have your boat to make the cover.

All that said, it cost me just about $2K to have the cover made - everything included.

I will call them and ask if they can give me the pattern and if they would be able to sell me another one for a discounted price.