Winter cover with the shipping cover

[Evil Sports]

Shrink Wrap and sleep well this winter.

 

[shnknapp]

I can vouch that the 2020 shipping covers have vents at the top, just like the mooring covers do. I'm in Minnesota and have the same dilemma that @Clowell50 has.

I have a noobie question that maybe someone knows the answer to...

When you shrinkwrap, do they shrinkwrap OVER the cover?

If so, which cover would be better to shrinkwrap over? The mooring cover, or the shipping cover? I would prefer to use the shipping cover and shrinkwrap over it, and keep the mooring cover stored inside my house to make it last a bit longer.

MN Resident here. Are you storing outside or inside?

 

[shnknapp]

@Ronnie Makes sense. I got two quotes this evening on shrink wrapping. $180 and $220 and they will come to the house. Also put vents in. Not really sure what I am going to do. Shrinkwrap, inside heated storage, Get rid of the Admiral and move down to the keys..... It's all a bit much to think about as I am covered in dust and dirt from demoing the kitchen and the temperatures are dropping into the 50's outside and my boating season is over..... smh

Don't count the season over yet. We're going to be hitting the 70's in MN next week. Maybe we'll send some of those temps your way.

 

[ZGhost]

Not ready to put her away yet .... maybe will get lucky with a few more days but will definitely be adding stable to gas next outing to get it slushing around and into the engine.

 

[Damsroy]

For us in Maine it's not so much the frosty snowy season I would worry about. It's the freezing rain and sleet season on either side of the deep freeze where there is plenty of water but it's not freezing and could cause mold. I opened my boat up this year at the end of April and the 4 large water collectors I put in were full and that was with it shrink wrapped and plenty of circulation.

Different people/situations different results i guess. I put 2 Damp-Rid buckets. They were not even half full when spring came.
I went and check out under the shipping cover a few times during winter. Air was circulating well and it was dry.
Shipping cover was "new" or at least first time using it as a winter cover. Performance might deteriorate as shipping cover wear. Time will tell.

 

[Tim in MD]

I only have one winter of experience, but I left my AR210 on my boat lift off the Chesapeake Bay (I don't own a trailer, as I plan to always leave it on the lift, so I assume shrink wrap therefore not an option), I put the shipping cover on, left it from late October to mid-April, and everything was hunky-dorey in the the spring - just a few spiders and bugs to clear out. This year I'll do the same, with the addition of the Damp-Rid as suggested by @Damsroy Granted the cover was new, so no cracks yet, and it's only one winter - we'll see what happens over the next winters...

 

[Evil Sports]

Sorry but Im not basing the interior condition of my boat on a cheap shipping cover. You cant tell what type of snow and ice load you will have from winter to winter. Not chancing it on that cover. Plus when I put her to sleep I dont want to be worrying that I did the right thing or not. So unless inside storage, its full shrink wrap for me and boating since the 90s that strategy has served me well.

 

[Canuckjetboater]

So the guy that shrink wraps my boat uses 1x2 boards to make a frame that goes down the center of the boat just over top of the windshield with the tower in the lowered position. He then puts the shrink wrap over that.

@Clowell50 .......Friends who have exactly that done split a pool noodle to cover the windshield frame to protect it. they used to use foam pipe wrap but the adhesive from that gets all over the frame.

 

[Sbrown]

Two thoughts to add to the discussion and also direct experience with both methods. First thought is the fact that there are two different styles of shipping cover. Pre 2018 and 2018 and newer. The basic difference between the two is simply that the pre 2018 covers are designed to go under the tower and also only come part way down the side of the boat. The 2018 and later covers are designed to go over top of a lowered tower and also go all the way down the sides to the hull. So different shipping covers may account for the different experiences.

Second thought is that the marine dealer near me always has a ton of boats stored over the winter, including brand new yamahas in their own inventory. All these brand new yamahas spend the winter outside under shipping covers left alone, with no problems. Northeast Pa. has moderate amounts of snow and ice, winters are almost always very wet here.

Personal experience, I've had the boat shrinkwrapped two years, used the pre 2018 style cover one year and used the 2018 and later cover one year. Never used any moisture removal system at all, just the vents that were installed in the covers. Boats were under cover from mid Nov until late March, early April. Results? The pre 2018 cover allows a little water through around the tower attachment points which caused a little minor black streaking, no other issues and that cover wasnt in the best shape. No noticeable problems or differences between shrinkwrap and the 2018 and later shipping cover. Except its alot easier to uncover and use the boat with the shipping cover than with shrinkwrap.

At the end of the day, my feeling is if I have some extra bucks and dont mind not having use of the boat for the winter, I prefer shrinkwrap. But if things are tight, or I anticipate a milder winter where I may want to have use of the boat, I dont have any problem just using the white shipping cover.

Side note, the owner of marina I pay to do the shrinkwrap also said the shipping cover was perfectly capable of protecting the boat over the winter and that I was probably wasting my money on shrinkwrap.

 

[Quad]

I don’t live in a place where it snows but have used a shipping cover as an outdoor winter cover many times. The soft inner liner of the shipping cover absorbs water like a sponge if/when it gets wet mold can develop quickly. One year water leaked in through the Velcro openings for the tower, when I took the cover off at the start of the season the liner was covered in mold and some of it transferred to the Tops of the seats.

One thing that sucks about the shipping cover is that yamaha doesn’t sell them. They come with their boats, so if you want one you have to go to a private party which can charge what they want. I paid close to $300 for my current shipping cover, not bad compared to a $700 canvas cover but not inexpensive either.

I wanted the shipping cover that came with my boat but my dealer (the only dealer in Maine, so you can figure that out if you want) *throws them away* (!!!) as soon as they receive the boats! The boat we bought had been sitting as their showroom boat since January, and they got few, if any 242s after that so I've got nothing

This year I'll suck it up and do indoor unheated storage at the marina, but I'm hunting down some better options for later.

 

[Jeel]

I would advise against using the shipping cover in place of shrink wrap. 90% chance you will not be happy with the result in the spring, now you have a real mess to deal with.

Have you tried it? Ive been using it for years on the 2 yamahas ive owned.. as long as the cover is in good shape ive never had a problem

 

[nydave]

What i did in NY to winterize and store outside for winter
Did a full service on both engines (oil, plugs).

Good flushing of engines with RV antifreeze. then rav engine to blow out any leftover. I fogged each engine as part of this to kill two things at once. (each engine until it stalled)

Removed cleanout plugs and dowsed them with silicone spray. along with entire jet assembly under boat.

Filled tank with gas and stabilizer.

Drained fresh water tank and ran a bit of RV antifreeze through it.

Removed both batteries and put on tender in garage for winter.

Good cleaning and removed everything that wasnt part of the boat and stored in garage in rubbermaid bins.

Left all boat compartments open and put a bunch of descant containers in every compartment.

Put trailer on blocks so tires weren't sitting on ground.

Covered boat with shipping cover and covered the whole boat over wake tower with a huge tarp i got from amazon.

Boat was in perfect condition in spring when i removed the cover. Installed batteries checked oil level and started her right up no issues at all

 

[Ronnie]

I wanted the shipping cover that came with my boat but my dealer (the only dealer in Maine, so you can figure that out if you want) *throws them away* (!!!) as soon as they receive the boats! The boat we bought had been sitting as their showroom boat since January, and they got few, if any 242s after that so I've got nothing

This year I'll suck it up and do indoor unheated storage at the marina, but I'm hunting down some better options for later.

Check out great lakes skipper on ebay , they may have the shipping cover for your model boat. If they do expect to pay $250 to $300 for it including the anti-pooling kit.

I assume your dealer throws out the shipping covers (or say they do) to incentivize it’s customers to purchase the canvas mooring cover which they make a nice profit on.

 

[Quad]

Check out great lakes skipper on ebay , they may have the shipping cover for your model boat. If they do expect to pay $250 to $300 for it including the anti-pooling kit.

I assume your dealer throws out the shipping covers (or say they do) to incentivize it’s customers to purchase the canvas mooring cover which they make a nice profit on.

Do you know if they sell the pieces to hold towers down too?

 

[HangOutdoors]

Ask your dealer for the brackets to hold the towers down. I asked for and got mine. He also says they just keep them in a box, some people want them and some don't. May be worth a shot.

 

[hapyfishrmn]

I am going with indoor storage would anyone still suggest wrapping?

Or going with the mooring (black) cover or shipping (white) cover?

 

[Jilly Ruby Jane]

sounds great, but I've never used it before. I think it's worth a try

 

[drewkaree]

@Ronnie Makes sense. I got two quotes this evening on shrink wrapping. $180 and $220 and they will come to the house. Also put vents in. Not really sure what I am going to do. Shrinkwrap, inside heated storage, Get rid of the Admiral and move down to the keys..... It's all a bit much to think about as I am covered in dust and dirt from demoing the kitchen and the temperatures are dropping into the 50's outside and my boating season is over..... smh

See how much to shrink wrap the Admiral

I'm in Wisconsin. Second winter, both of them stored indoors, both winters with the white shipping cover on it. Last year, I had one Damp Rid bucket and two of the refillable 5lb Damp Rid Mega containers. The ice cream bucket sized Damp Rid was about half full, and both of the refillable 5lb'ers were nothing BUT water. This year, I bought another refillable 5lb Mega container, and refilled the other two, in addition to putting the ice cream bucket one back in. My experience shows me (anyone is free to disagree, this is just my personal experience) that those vents are letting moisture IN, as well as letting some out, although there's not going to be an even exchange, which is why I have the Damp Rid in addition. Damp Rid refills are simply calcium chloride. Next year, I'll probably spring for another Mega, and then DIY some redneck version with some calcium chloride pellets. If there were some way I could get power to the inside of my boat, I'd get a fan set up with a humidistat. Since I can't, I'll keep dealing with what I have until I have problems.

In the spring, there was no mold on my cover or the seats. That may change over time, but there's no way for me to know this will indeed happen until that time comes, at which point I will deal with it. I have a relative who does (used to?) shrinkwrap for boats in Wisconsin, and in his experience with his own boat, the nice thing about the wrap is that if you DO get any snow on it, it's so tight on the boat that if they've done the job well, just flicking the wrap should get a lot of the snow to slide off. Rain shouldn't be an issue either. If I were to have to store my boat outside, I would NOT use the shipping cover, as @Ronnie is right, the shipping cover DOES act like a sponge in certain areas. I have a 2019, with a full cover. The problem areas with the shipping cover on my boat is the swim deck and the area around the stern. It wasn't a mold issue, it was an issue with the dust in storage settling on the cover, and as temps change, any morning "dew" would run down, collecting all the dust, and any seam or needle hole would allow the dusty dirty water in those areas. I had several brown spots on the swim deck that were a bitch to clean up in spring. You could tell from the streaking on the cover, just how this all happened. The fabric that Ronnie is talking about simply sucked all that crap up too. For the most part, it dripped off the edges, but on the sides of the boat, it definitely got dirty/stained.

If I were in the position of storing it outside at my house, I would definitely consider running a fan inside the boat with a humidistat like I mentioned earlier, something along these lines: Amazon: Inkbird Humidity Controller I've still got some old DIY controllers from long-ago humidor projects, such as these: DIY Humidor contnrollers and that would work to keep a wine fridge full of cigars properly calibrated, so that Inkbird plug-in controller should be perfect to run a fan inside your boat when called for, and it'll run until it hits its target humidity and then shut off, in theory getting the humidity OUT via the aforementioned vents on the newer shipping covers.

 

[Maineiac]

The problem areas with the shipping cover on my boat is the swim deck and the area around the stern. It wasn't a mold issue, it was an issue with the dust in storage settling on the cover, and as temps change, any morning "dew" would run down, collecting all the dust, and any seam or needle hole would allow the dusty dirty water in those areas. I had several brown spots on the swim deck that were a bitch to clean up in spring. You could tell from the streaking on the cover, just how this all happened. The fabric that Ronnie is talking about simply sucked all that crap up too. For the most part, it dripped off the edges, but on the sides of the boat, it definitely got dirty/stained.

I had this exact problem. Stored my AR210 outside with the shipping cover this winter and my swim deck is nasty. My first cleaning attempt didn’t get it all off so I’m going to need to try again.

 

[drewkaree]

I had this exact problem. Stored my AR210 outside with the shipping cover this winter and my swim deck is nasty. My first cleaning attempt didn’t get it all off so I’m going to need to try again.

I dunno what you used on your first cleaning, but I ended up using some Simple Green, and then some Purple Power (degreaser). It all finally came out, and this year, after I pulled it out of storage, I've been using my two beach balls I use in the bow under the mooring cover (search for "boobs" under my username, a pic or thread should turn up) on the swim deck. Stuff rolls off the back and sides of the boat now. I do indoor winter storage, so it doesn't start causing problems until I pull it out of storage and the rain washes all the crap off the shipping cover.