Hmm, that looks like the beginnings of a new tramp... You can take it to a local sailmaker and see if he can save it, but I would guess it is just too many years in the sun so the fabric is letting go at the seams. Either way you are going to have to remove it for patch/repair or replacement, it can't be done in place.
Yes so you think it will be better to get a new one! i had a nother one so i put a older one on and it seems to be working real nice. But i guess i need to look for a new one! So how do we keeep the sun off of it so it doesnt happen again? do i use a tarp? How do you guys do it?
I'd like to keep my cat covered, too, even though it doesn't have a tramp. UV and gelcoat still don't play nice. But the wind can get really nasty around my house. (It's been gusting over 20kts all week.) So the blue tarps you get from the hardware store tend to self-destruct in only a couple of months, and sound like crackling gunfire the entire time.
Aside from shelling out a thousand bucks to have a custom Sunbrella cloth cover made for my boat, any alternatives to using a blue tarp from the hardware store?
Thanks,
Tom
-- Tom Benedict
Island of Hawaii
P-Cat 18 / Sail# 361 / HA 7633 H / "Smilodon" --
I seem to recall some people talking about using white shrink wrap stuff for their boat.. but i dont know anythin about it, search for it on this site, or start a new thread if others dont chime in.
Even going through one every few months, the blue tarps are cheaper. For mast up storage I buy one once a season along with a couple of rolls of duct tape and some cheap stick on velcro. Make your measurements, cut the tarp to fit the mast and rigging. Finish the edges with duct tape and place the stickon velcro on the duct tape to close the gaps around the rigging. Total cost is less than 40 bucks and it lasts a full season.
I also inherited an industrial sewing machine, bought a bolt of sunbrella and some zippers to make a mast up cover. Now I just gotta find time to learn how to sew a cover.
I might go the bolt of sunbrella route. The problem with killing a couple of tarps a year isn't just the demise of the tarp. It's all the noise it'll generate in the meanwhile. My cat's about 40' from my bedroom window, so if it shakes rattles and rolls in the wind, it keeps us up at night.
Tom
P.S. The larger issue is that my wife is an avid cat sailor, too. So push comes to shove, she won't do anything to the boat. But she might decide to ram the dead tarp down my neck and tell me to go sleep in the yard!
-- Tom Benedict
Island of Hawaii
P-Cat 18 / Sail# 361 / HA 7633 H / "Smilodon" --