Had a real good day yesterday! Calm for once, a beauty fall day. Let me get 2 BIG winter cover patterns. Always a relief.
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Hi handsome!
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Thats #1
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Here's #2.
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thats packing tape on center. The wind started picking up and thats to forestall the ripping of the paper. And 'Gorilla Tape' good stuff.
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foggy picture. The camera got the sweats.
Black Topgun the both of them, tied to the toerail in #1 and the cradle in #2. I'll put the 'done' pics up when they're done in a couple weeks.
Looking good. Patterning in the wind is no fun and makes a nice fit nigh on impossible; good fit is important if you live in an area prone to wind driven snow and ice storms. What are you using for the pattern?
We use a lot of Stamoid for winter covers. It is durable and it sheds snow really well, important in our location. I have a large winter cover in 3 pcs. to repair tomorrow. It's a Fairclough, made of a very heavy canvas, and it's going to be a real bear... evidently a mouse decided to set up housekeeping in it over the summer. Can't wait.
when i was up north nobody had me make a winter cover.. thats where i started with snrinkwrap.
i wish we had shrink wrap here, it's so expensive only big boat owners can
afford it.
I'm starting a winter cover monday for a 30' boat and it needs to be made in 3 parts .
i'm patterning with a blanket but should i fit 12' zips first or after ?
Rich
Rich, I'm the "in shop grunt" in my present position. I used to do work in the field years ago, but not for over 12 yrs. now. But I well recall the frustration of trying to fit dodgers and side curtains in windy conditions. Sucked.
Winter covers we've made have always begun with the framing to support them. I am in an area that can get considerable snow and so any winter cover must be supported well below. If I recall correctly (haven't made one in couple of years now) the basic "blanks" for the pcs. required are put together in the shop based on fairly rough measurements made over the framing. The connecting zippers are installed and then the blanks are basically fitted on site, darting as required, cutting out and around things like masts, stays, davits, etc.. I have no recollection of large pcs. of patterning plastic in my memory, at all. I hope this helps you out somewhat.
Holy cow, Peppy! That's a lot of brown paper! I'm sure the cover will fit to a "T", though. I just shrink-wrapped a boat yesterday. Winterized it too. All very foreign stuff in South Florida, but if a boat's going north, somebody has to know how.
June
I'm not sure Rich, I'd pattern it! But without really thinking about it...before? Fit is a lot less important on one of these. The customer sees it for 10 minutes in the spring and 10 minutes in the fall. Then all your mistakes lay hidden for 5 months.
Around here there are 2 (at least) schools of thought on winter covers. There's the 'garage on a boat' type, building a structure on the toerail and covering it with miles of fabric. Our competition does that very well. But some customers don't like building a small house every year 20' above the ground. And in fact the manufacturer doesn't recommend them for our area without substantial (read costly) beefing up, due to snow loads.
So, we've developed a concept of building very simple support structure over the cockpit only and the rest of the tarp lays flat on the deck acting as a barrier. Our assumption is that this spreads the weight of 4 or 5 feet of snow evenly over the entire boat instead of concentrated on the toerail. The cockpit structure is designed to let snow run off, and leaving an airspace for the boat to breath somewhat.
After watching our tarps for a buntch of years it seems to work. No complaints anyway (so far knock on wood). Indeed after a big wet snow there can be A LOT of snow stuck to one of those shacks. Although I haven't ever heard of one collapsing (knock on wood)
Not many winter covers up here. Mainly shrinkwrap! It's cold and snowy up here!
Oh, winter covers, yum.
Measure em. Piece of cake. ;D
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That fits nicely, PDQ. What's the fabric?
Most of the winter covers we've done have been for sailboats, gen. big ones, upwards of 34'. Winter covers are expensive items, but properly constructed and cared for they are, over the long term, a less expensive than shrinkwrapping with a lot less environmental "footprint" than the disposal of plastic that is used just once.
We will sometimes stitch the blanks together, but in more recent years have begun using a local resource with a heat welder to weld the runs together. No stitching means there is no thread to rot on the longest runs where it's hardest to restitch! We have one cover (stamoid) for a really big boat that is now approaching 12 yrs. old and is still perfectly serviceable. The owner is very good about maintaining it, bringing it in the spring when the boat is launched, and then storing it where it won't become a mouse condo.
Fairclough seems to be the big name in covers around here. They're out of Connecticut, I think. They use the preshrunk boat topping and they're really heavy. A few years ago some ding-dong brought one in for repair that was wet... we made him take it home and bring it back when it was dry. :-X
Shrink Wrap,
What's the dynamics of this, is the material merely wrapped tight or is there a vacuum or heat applied to get it snug to the vessel?
I have seen boats in shipment that appeared to have been wrapped, might be different?
Doyle
Maybe June will chime in, Doyle, but I think the process involves a heat gun. We had a canvas repair a couple of years ago that was a burn and if memory serves me correctly it was the result of a careless heat gun in the shrink wrapping process.
Quote from: DB on November 04, 2010, 05:26:47 am
Shrink Wrap,
What's the dynamics of this, is the material merely wrapped tight or is there a vacuum or heat applied to get it snug to the vessel?
I have seen boats in shipment that appeared to have been wrapped, might be different?
Doyle
Here it is in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aObC2vyyAy4
Quote from: PDQ on November 03, 2010, 06:19:39 pm
Measure em. Piece of cake. ;D
I need a tape measure like yours! Most times I measure a piece of cake I end up putting hair on it, turning it into an unpleasant experience. The tape measure I use is 60" wide and looks suspiciously like brown paper. ;)
And done.
*sigh*
(thats a sigh of relief (not of contentment BTW))
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the simple structure of #1. When I say simple I mean it.
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#1
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#2
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#2 again. Indecently I made the one beside it 5 years ago. Ice tent that was....I miss that stuff...
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Here's where I almost died. Ladder slipped and I fell off it. Thank god I had hold of the rope that was tied to the tarp. Only ripped out three of the loops. I'll be hand sewing them tomorrow I guess.....I took this picture to remind me why I hate f*****ing winter covers. Hey Bobbin and PDQ, they're all yours. You can split them.
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Did you know you could edit in photobucket? I didn't!
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The shrinky-dink boattop. The boss's awesome idea is cut up the shrink wrap to make the pattern for next years winter cover. Opps...did I say that out load? Shit...at least call it the Freddy.
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Made this one last year.
That concludes the tour of Wiarton Marina. Thank you for coming! If you were here I'd pour you a beer! Cheers to not falling to my death!
Quote from: DB on November 04, 2010, 05:26:47 am
Shrink Wrap, is the material merely wrapped tight or is there a vacuum or heat applied to get it snug to the vessel?
Doyle
the plastic comes clear blue or a
white it is stable untill it is heated with generaly a propane heat gun and then it tightens ans shwrinks onto the boat. Unshrunk it's is a verry good pattern material
clad toy didn't fall peppy that could really ruin your day
then it shwrinks it is placed over and around the boat tied around the gull and strapped down once it's heated it Shrinks and tightens onto the boat.
Peppy, that's really scary :o Ever consider a harness? I've had a few close calls but anymore I just refuse to go where I don't feel it's safe. I'll make the cover if they bring down the old one - like the top of a tuna tower - but I ain't going up there.
June
Some years ago a "live aboard" guy was shovelling off the floats and went into the drink. He never emerged. The water was cold (North Atlantic), the floats were snow covered and slippery, the tide was strong, and he was unable to haul himself onto the floats. He drowned and his body was recovered some days later.
Falls can be fatal! and whenever you are working on a boat in the water you should wear a "float coat". A float coat provides insulation against cold water temps. along with the bouyancy factor. If you go into the drink and you're floating the odds are someone will see you and fish you out!!! Bouyancy will also maintain the liklihood that you'll be able to breathe after you've lost consciousness. People succumb to cold and drown. In cold water your body will automatically shut down to preserve life. If your head is reasonably above water you stand a better chance of survival. (Red Cross Life Saving/WSI instructor). NEVER go to a marina without leaving word at the shop and the office that you are going to work on such&such a boat and should be finished by such&such a time. Check in and check out. "Buddy system", you guys!
Sorry about the typing this phone my fingers and eyes don't go together.
Excellent advice, Bobbin. Down here I'm much more worried about hitting the dock on the way down since the water isn't cold, but a proper vest would be a good thing to have on.
Mike, you doing all your browsing on a phone?? What happened to your computer?
June
Comcast sete up with a air card and router set up it stopes working nit this weekend thing might change I hope.
Ya, if I could only afford a sky hook I'd be set. Falling in the drink wasn't the worry so much as the jagged rocks in front of the water. Would have been a lonely hour waiting for my ride. That was the worst close call in 8 years. A good reminder to be safer I guess. Another reason to keep the phone in my pocket and not with the stereo! Thanks for your concern!
Well, I finally got around to making a winter cover for my boat the Filthy Oar.
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Don't let it be said I can't do 'quick and dirty'. This took about an hour and a $20 tarp. Fun too! No pattern, no sewing, no scissors even! A free form boat tarp. Just don't tell my customers it can be so easy!
Bringing this one up, no point creating another winter cover topic.
3 piece winter cover for a new 45' Sun Odyssey (Jeanneau).
Top Gun(68mtrs), dutch laced, zipped access on transom, eyelet & spliced.
Couple of quirky areas that need to be dealt with but overall, PDG. :)
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Very nice, Peppy! What did you use for the framing that supports the cover?
Quote from: bobbin on November 12, 2011, 02:49:35 pm
Very nice, Peppy! What did you use for the framing that supports the cover?
Not sure what Peppy used tbh. ;D However, this one has no frame work, just a boom and the odd tensioned line from mast to pulpit.
Sorry 'bout that, chief! ::) The fit is so snug and nearly wrinkle free I was sure there had to be some extra support under there somewhere. Very nice work, I think winter covers can be a real challenge.
Quote from: bobbin on November 12, 2011, 04:02:52 pm
Sorry 'bout that, chief! ::) The fit is so snug and nearly wrinkle free I was sure there had to be some extra support under there somewhere. Very nice work, I think winter covers can be a real challenge.
No worries. :)
They're pretty simple so long as you get your measurements right and transfered to cloth correctly. After that it should all fall into place, but they don't always. :) The most common problem area is the aft section, from the topping lift down to the corners of the pushpit. Get that bit right and then you're laughing. :)
Nice cover
I did two Florida wintrr covers ;) patdrns today ;)
normal snap on cockpit cover and a mooring on a pontoon did the half pattern.
Peppy ha e you yet tried used thebold
shrinkwrapmfor a pattern. It wouldn't be flat after shrinking but a neat idea
I always think in terms of framing to support a winter cover because I live in an area where major snow load is a consideration.
No Mike, haven't tried the shrink wrap pattern. The local marina does shrink wrapping, so we don't really want to step on their toes. I'm sure it would work if you wrapped it right. This year we only had 2 to build thankfully. We're much deeper into the storage business latley. I'd be happy to never make another.
Bobbin we get enough snow here too. You can build a house on a boat, but that puts stress on the boat anywhere your house touches the boat. When wet snow builds up on the house all the weight is concentrated on the toe rail. Our tarps lay flat on the deck spreading that wieght evenly over the entire deck with no pressure points. Not sure which is better, some people buy our tarps some buy the houses. Our tarps can be put on in an hour or two. I've seen 2 people spend a weekend putting a house on their boat. What do they do with it all summer? I've watched some of my tarps for the last ten years. They seem to do the job.
Thats really nice PDQ. I would like to see you triangulate that tarp. We're making one right now I tried triangulating. I don't have much hope of it working TBH. Well, it will eventually.....100 trips later?
I would much rather trace a tarp-
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unfortunatly I don't have a finished picture. Looks like that but twice as big and grey odyssey. 85 yards.
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Here's my sewer looking very unimpressed.
No offense, Peppy, but if you brought me that pile of paper to reproduce in canvas I think I'd quit. The best luck I've had with very large covers is by making a semi-fitted canvas, then marking and finishing. For instance, when I do a large center console boat with a t-top, I make 4 panels large enough to hang from the t-top but don't join them. Take them to the boat, hang them up, drape over the sides, then get inside the tent and staple/mark. I do use triangulation to get the bow and stern portion of the canvas blank, though since they're not just rectangles like the sides.
June
She thought about quitting ;)
This was 3 pieces zippered together; back, hardtop, front. She finishes (hem, velcro, loops ect) each piece before sewing it to the big piece. The nice thing about a pattern is you don't have to go back to the boat until it's done. I had 4 hours to pattern and 2 hours to tie it on. She had a weekish.
Most of the covers I've stitched up have been sort of a hybrid of the two methods, starting out as June does with with fabric "blanks" that are cut to the basic shape of the portion of the finished cover. Sometimes, if there's something really funky to incorporate there will be a pattern made from the woven plastic. I work from measurments a lot, too.
As for framing ,the best has been fashioned from PVC pipe and has been pretty basic. Most of the covers I've sewn up have been made from Stamoid, something that will shed water and snow pretty readily.
I cringe whenever I get one of those big, canvas Fairclough covers to restitch. ;) I am rapidly heading toward the end of my "muscle it around the shop and under the needle" career! I don't object to dirty, but big and heavy are not my favorites. Crawling around on the floor to get the layout is a drag, too.