[Rhodes22-list] Winter Storage

[jbconnolly at comcast.net]

I am facing up to the likelihood that after pulling the boat out of the water 
prior to my vacation, I may not get her back in this year.  Too much other 
stuff to do.  

In previous sailboats, I have stored on the trailer using the mast as a 
tarpaulin support pole, and supported the (horizontal) mast at the bow, stern, 
tabernacle, and sometimes also a fourth support in the cockpit area.  

Aside from the fact that the mast would need additional support between the bow 
rail and stern rail, I have the GB mast-raising system with the tall aft mast 
crutch, so the mast isn't horizontal.  

How do people arrange their boats for winter storage?  Anybody just add more 
support and wrap her up with the mast on the GB support, or is that a bad 
idea?  Is the GB crutch strong enough to take this sort of load?  2' of snow on 
my old R-19 tarp partially collapsed the aft mast crutch on me once.  No damage 
to the boat or mast as a result, but I would prefer to avoid similar situations 
in the future.

BTW, the long-term weather forecast and the "Old Farmer's Almanac" apparently 
agree that this coming winter will be similar to the last, with snow from 
November to April, (FWIW).  We had near-record snow totals here in MA.


Jim Connolly
s/v Inisheer
1985