[Rhodes22-list] Boat Covers - Art, Robert, Ron

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Ron, Robert, Art,
 
I apologize for dropping out of this thread about 4 days ago.  The  adverse 
weather (winds and rain) finally stopped, we’ve had a couple of nice  days, and 
the admirable and I have been hustling to get the boat reassembled,  painted, 
and waxed for launch this coming week.  We have to launch this  coming week 
because of marina constraints, which is fine with us but getting the  boat 
ready quickly has been a chore.  As new owners, we’re probably being  obsessive as 
to what has to be done. 
 
As an aside, we were significantly held up two times by people stopping  over 
to inquire about the great looking boat - who made it, etc- and also to  
respond to the amazed reactions to my test of the furling mainsail - they hadn’t  
seen a furling mainsail on a boat our size.  IMO full credit for the above  
goes to Stan and General Boats - and we told them about Stan and General  Boats. 
 I imagine this happens all the time to other people on the list,  but it was 
gratifying.
 
Back to covers: Ron, I gather you’ve got what amounts to a winter cover and  
separately a summer cover and that they are different.  Robert, I gather  your’
s is a winter cover  useful when the mast is down on the hard,  although with 
mods it might work with the mast up and the boat on the  hard.  
 
It might be nice if there were 1 cover that you could use on your boat for  
winter and summer when it was either afloat or on the hard (with the mast  up). 
 A cover that you could deploy and recover quickly while you are on  board 
(Ron that appears to be your summer cover) and would keep rain, snow,  sleet, 
bird droppings, pollen, sap, whatever out of the cockpit, off the hatch,  off 
the motor, and largely off the boat.  Such a cover might help  preserve the 
appearance of the boat and also minimize the consequences of  any leak problems 
above the water line.
 
Robert, I appreciate your feed back re your winter cover.  Sounds  good.  If 
we haul out next fall and need a winter cover,  and I  haven’t solved our 
cover problem, it might work; although it sounds more  difficult with the mast and 
shrouds up.  I'll keep the HF tarp on the  chance we will use it again.
 
Ron, your summer cover looks great and I gather it’s worked well for  you.  
To use it as a winter cover, however, I think I’d want more pitch (as  I’m 
sure your winter cover has) to be sure that snow and ice would fall off and  
avoid pooling.  This comes back to my desire for an all season cover that  could 
be used afloat.
 
When things slow down here (i.e. post launch) I may get a couple of bed  
sheets to rough out what might work.  I think it would be nice if  there were one 
cover that would work for winter and summer afloat or on the  hard.  It would 
not be a substitute for a boom room, rather it would be a  simple cover.
 
Sounds like a project.  Thank you for info as to what you've  done.
 
Dave



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