Lessee....a boat is a vehicle isn't it? :)

[twomanymontes]

You have some serious skills! Very nice wood working!

 

[great white]

Working on the Boat cover brought up some problems. I needed to store the boat outside and cover it while towing.

While a flat cover would work fine for towing, it would quickly turn into a swimming pool when used for storage.

I was planning to use aluminum bows in a slot already in the gunnels to make a "pop up" style cover to shed water while in storage. , but it became obvious I'd need lots of them (IE: $$$$$) to keep the cover from flapping and collapsing if I used it for towing.

I knew I didn't want some big complex thing with poles and tie down's all over the place. I wanted something light, easily to take up/down and easily stowed.

Then I hit upon an idea from a web search:

You must be registered for see images attach

Great idea to keep the cover up.

So I got out and old ratchet strap, some webbing material and the sewing machine and adapted it a bit for better trailering manners:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Just what I'm looking for. The ratchet strap pulls taught and loads the bows under compression, making them even stiffer. It will keep the cover up and shedding water when stationary and will support it while trailering down the road. When ready, release the ratchet mechanism and it goes loose, slip the bows out of their slots and it all folds up to a straight flat piece.

Now to start on the cover.

Fortunately, we are encouraged at work to use materials to practice our skills on projects when things are slow. I'm using some rip stop material that is water proof. Light and flexible, sheds water like a duck and you can't tear it if you tried, even if it's got a cut in it.

Mil spec stuff, love it!



Only problem is it literally smells like puke when you get a large quantity if it in one place.......

 

[great white]

Boat cover is underway:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

I've got the shape right and you can see the first hem is done.

Next I'll stitch on the rear panel and fit it to the boat and have a special bit to pop up and around/over the outboard.

When that's done, the hem that you see gets rolled up over a large piece of bungee that will go around the perimeter of the gunnel and stitched into a pocket. I'll add somewhere around 6 tabs loops of webbing to each side to bungee down to the trailer.

Finally, I'll stitch up a "bra" to cover the front and "wing" out to cover the lower bow from stones. It will also help to keep air sneaking up under the cover from the front.

 

[great white]

Cover is coming along:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Slow and steady but it's getting there....

 

[great white]

You must be registered for see images attach

Man, that's a lot of bungee cord......

 

[hookedup50]

Really nice work as usuall from you. Glad to have caught up to your whereabouts on the web. Your Oilburner build thread is what I tried to emulate on my 6.5 and what kept me motivated on a long build. Thank you. What kind of fish are you gonna catch in that gorgeous local?

 

[great white]

Really nice work as usuall from you. Glad to have caught up to your whereabouts on the web. Your Oilburner build thread is what I tried to emulate on my 6.5 and what kept me motivated on a long build. Thank you. What kind of fish are you gonna catch in that gorgeous local?

Yeah, I've kinda bounced around a bit and seem to have settled here.

About all there is around here is brown trout, lake trout and salmon.

Salmon you need a license for, so it's trout.

No other species in these waters....its all rock bottom and cold water.

Unless you go salt....

 

[great white]

Cover is done for now:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

So now it's back to the trailer welding and prep for paint work:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Couple more days of work, a touch more woodworking and it will be done and ready for the season.

 

[great white]

Did a bit more metal burnin' today and added a small walkway:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

I added the walkway because some of the sites I launch at is very shallow and you end up walking in waste/thigh high water a lot.

This way, I can pull on the regular rubber boots and walk out the trailer to launch and recover instead of getting wet or having to wear hip waders. Much better than trying to balance on the rails while trying to manhandle the boat. That never seems to end well.....

Tomorrow should see a final clean up and into primer.

Getting close now!

 

[great white]

Primed and into the very first coat of black:

You must be registered for see images attach

There are some missing u bolts I have on order and still have to flip it over for the first coat on the bottom surfaces, but it's nice to see final assembly beginning...