[Rhodes22-list] Winter Storage

[Jay Curry]

For what its worth.......

We stored our Hunter 33 at Bayfield, WI for 4 winters. Bayfield is on Lake 
Superior which is east and a little north of Duluth, MN on the east side of 
the Apostle Islands peninsula. The winters are extreme since Bayfield is 
subject to lake effect winds and snow fall. Temperatures are routinely 20 
below zero or more. Snow fall accumulation is often heavy. Covering the boat 
was that last step after winterizing the water system, rigging and engine.

Our first winter, we had the boat shrink wrapped. The contractor placed a 
poorly supported tenting post on the fore deck and the shrink pressure 
cracked the deck. We used tarps from then on. From my point of view, tarps 
are safer and put less stress on the boat. A man shrink wrapping his boat at 
a marina on the St Croix River near Minneapolis, caught the wrap on fire. 
Boats are stored extremely close together at the marinas in this area. The 
fire spread to the next boat and eventually destroyed many large sail and 
motor yachts before it was controlled. I think the number was over 30 boats 
destroyed.

You have to do the same thing for tarps as you do for shrink wrapping and 
that is to build a tenting structure that is stout enough to handle winds 
and snow load. You also have to make the tent sides steep enough for most 
snow to fall off but, low profile enough to handle the wind. We saw a lot of 
fancy custom made covers get torn up by the wind. Tarps are just as 
effective and much easier and less expensive to replace. The important thing 
is how well you support the cover you use.

I will be doing the same thing for the Rhodes this winter since we are now 
located at the foot of the Olympic Mountains in Washington and annually 
subjected to high winds and occasional heavy, wet snow fall. Now that I know 
how to support the boat well on the trailer, the cover will be easy to do.

What I love about the Rhodes is how easily the entire mast can be removed 
and stored indoors. Ours will be in the garage with the engine and 
batteries. All that will be needed then is a system of PVC or wood tenting 
arches that can be assembled, connected to each other and lashed to the 
deck. The arches are extremely easy to build, assemble, disassemble and 
store. All the parts are ready made and on the shelves of any hardware 
store. You don't necessarily have to glue them up completely. One or two 
tarps will then easily cover the boat and serve to hold the tenting together 
when the tarps are tied down.

Hope this was helpful. Good luck with your winterization and storage. My 
concern is mice. We are surrounded by woods and have to keep a system of 
traps along the walls near each garage door and any other space they can get 
into. Keeping them out of the boat is going to be fun. There are numerous 
places for them to enter the boat and they will eat through any material you 
try to close those places with. It will likely require a similar trapping 
strategy. Traps work even if they get in. Sooner or later, they investigate 
a trap.