why not use a blue "wal-mart" tarp

For a sail or for a cover?

I used to cover my H16 with one. Better than nothing, but a pain when it snowed. You have to take the snow off the tarp, or it will tend to pull on the tarp and make it rip sooner.

They don't last more than one winter.

Mike

They're not terribly good with UV exposure...In a cover situation, that's usually what does them in.

That is really the only thing you should ask of a cover is UV protection.
Having made 10 covers or so, the main thing is making them easy to put on (so you actually put it on) and making it so it doesn't flap AT ALL. Even a blue tarp should last you a long time if it doesn't flap.

Haha.. i meant as a cover..

but u got me thinking - and wouldn't ya know...

I have found the key to keeping it from flogging is to add more grommets and tie offs.

I made one out of a $30 tarp treated for UV protection, added more grommet holes and it has lasted two years so far. Easy to put on, but harder to secure due to all the ties at each grommet. I also coated the boat-facing side of the grommets to keep them from scratching the boat.

when I make covers I sew webbing tabs on the cover because they won't scratch like grommets will. I guess they wont last as long, but they will last long enough.

They could use a little more draft

I like the tabs idea. Do you have a heavy duty sewing machine?

I just used rope whipit because it dries to a rubbery consistency. It has started to come off, though.

it is a sailrite lsz-1 that has paid for itself about 5 times over (would have paid for itself 10 times over if I actually charged captain cardiac for all the covers I made for him!)

Small problem with the tabs of webbing is that they degrade too, and might go faster than the cloth, but even the smallest webbing is way stronger than it needs to be so some loss of strength due to UV is fine.

I like the bowsprit

As mentioned, the more ties, the better. I used bungees, and even using just the supplied grommets, was able to reduce most of the flogging.

Up here, the snow was the real killer. They would rip from the weight of the snow well before flogging or UV became a problem.

Mike

thanks for the input everyone.

So it seems to me there is no real good reason not to use them if a. properly secured b. snow isn't an issue and c. that ugly blue mono needs battens (and Dacron sails)

I have been using 1 or 2 very large tarps for years with no real issues, besides they degrade.

I just wanted to see if there were any reasons I hadn't thought of, or any

war stories

of death and explosions from tarps

Maybe 1 day I will get a machine and make some real covers.

Be real careful of water pooling. If the tarp is too loose, it will start a puddle and that puddle will continue to grow until your mast is bent like a toothpick. Whenever I use a tarp to cover a boat, I cut a few drainage holes in it so it can't collect excess water.

Custom hull covers are definitely the way to go if you can do it. They'll keep the hulls in pristine shape and it's like unwrapping a present every time you go sailing.

sm

Completely agree on putting the drain holes in. Water builds up quickly.

For UV(Florida) the best are the silver tarps. A little more but multiple years.

I had a blue tarp at one point and the color bled into the gelcoat where it touched the hulls.

I have a heavy duty silver one now that works great. 5 bungies hold it on with one at the back attached to the mast to keep the flogging down.

+1 well worth the extra $ for the silver tarp

How well a blue tarp will work as a cover, depends on where you live and where you store your boat. I live in Houston. In my back yard, a blue tarp will last about a year. In the boatyard, it will last about 2-3 months in the summer. The boatyard has no shade and is the middle of the largest concentration of petrochem plants in the world.

Don't go by the color of a coated polypropylene tarp. Look at the thickness or the weight. The thinness I remember was 2.3 mil and the thickest was a 15 mil white one from Australia(it lasted almost 2 years). I messed up last year, I grabbed a silver/back tarp on sale. I was halfway through making a cover when I checked the package and found it was only 4 mils. That cover lasted until July.

This year I am trying something different. When my my cover feel apart last year, I whined and complained finally said

those yellow Naugahyde rudder covers and storage bags are 25 years old and have been in direct sun for at least 15 years

.

The yellow Naugahyde cover for the A-Class has been working great for the last month. The rest of the material came in Tuesday, so I will start on the Wave cover and a mast cover for the A.

I will let you know how Naugahyde works. The bottom is open so I shouldn't have any condensation issues. It's waterproof and with the cover fitted to slip over the bows and sterns, it only needs 4 ties. It's just too heavy to move.

I think naugahyde is way overkill, and I still think it is important to have it breathe some

What's wrong with Sunbrella?

Other than the price it's great. Mine is going on three years with no signs of deterioration.

Sunbrella works great, though it obviously won't be as durable as naugahyde (which i think is vinyl). I use something called weathermax which I got off e-bay (was labelled on e-bay as Surlast, which it clearly isn't) and it works well also even though it is lighter than sunbrella. You do have to pick the correct color sunbrella though. Seems as though none of the colors really work as well as their standard pacific blue in terms of showing dirt, etc

We got 11 years out of Sunbrella cover on our SeaRay. Reordered new cover from Great Lakes, the original mfgr. Great service, they made the covers for SeaRay, had the records, and made an identical copy.

I get 3-4 years out of Sunbrella and getting ready to order some when I saw the same yellow Naugahyde used for my rudder covers on eBay for $5/yd. I figured at that price it was worth an experiment.

Years ago somebody made black Naugahyde Hobie 16 covers for trailering. They seemed to last forever and nobody mentioned a mildew problem. One person mentioned, they dried the hulls out nicely. Then again, in the direct summer sun here, they were too hot to touch.

Conversation inspired me to go to the lake and check the Blue Tarp on the H14. I painstakingly added extra grommets, made a little tent over the tramp with two scraps sticks of pvc conduit (mast/s hang in garage), tied it off way low between the hulls so the snow would slide off. Been bitterly cold, plenty of snow, hadn't checked on it in over a month...it's TOAST, ripped right down the seam.

I bought a tramp cover that was touted to be

as good as

sunbrella...looked just like it. It disintegrated in three years, $50/year mistake <img src="<>/sick.gif" alt="sick" title="sick" height="15" width="15" />

Remember the Billboard vinyl thread? Got my Vespa scooter sign for free. Made a cover for the H20, worked great, heavy material with UV coating on lettering side, bugger to put on and off.
IIRC that full size Billboard weighed 120 to 160 pounds, took two of us to load in my trunk.
Have half the billboard left, time to dig it out and make individual hull and tramp covers this time.

For me it is the cost/work/longevity ratio ....

I stopped using the

blue poly

tarps since I thought they just look

hokie

when I cover my H18Mag on it's trailer in the back yard (w/ the wings folded up)... so I've been using either brown or silver tarps. I get 3-4 years out of a tarp .... I use 3/8

bungie or doubled 3/16

bungie (old trap bungies) to hold the tarp in place.

The tarps cost approx $25/ea .... and the re-used

old trap bungies

are free since I include those in the cost (in my mind) in my racing budget of boat parts/maintenance.

For my P19 I have from Murrey's a Nitryl Polyvinyl Cover ... and that cover has lasted 6-8yrs so far and is still going strong .... except this year it has snowed before I got my lazy procrastinating butt in gear to put it on the boat for the winter after I brought the P19 home from the YC in December. The cover for the P19 is used all year long most years .... as I haven't been sailing her too much in recent years since I haven't been doing any open class handicapped

distance races

(ie: point to point) which is what I used her for the most. (But last year she sat down at the YC w/ the

mast up

all summer after the

Down the River Race

....) So we'll have see just how much longer the Nitryl Cover lasts .....

So we'll have to see how these covers comparitively cost out ...

I would like to get a custom boat cover for my TheMightyHobie18 ... but the cost-benefit ratio seems to lean to the cheap tarp and I haven't found a manufacture of a sunbrella custom boat cover that doesn't cost lots of $$$$$.

Harry
H18Mag/P19MX

How many poor Nauga's have to die for your precious cover? Nauga's have made a strong comeback in the wild, since fine Corinthian leather is now being used in most automobiles. This onset of Naugahyde boat covers may set the recovery back many, many years. Oh the humanity!!!!

per the Naugahyde website

Q: With all the cruelty in the world, how can you kill those cute little Naugas just for their hydes?
A: We don't. Naugas shed their hydes without harm to themselves, making Naugahyde the Cruelty-Free Fabric. For more information and pictures about Naugas, their history and their habits, read the Nauga Story