Last winter I had the mast pulled so I could do the rewire (detailed in earlier emails); and I also redid the fixed windows and a bunch of other deck work, so I wanted a place to work without having to worry about the weather. For a cover, I did some modifications to a design that some marina friends have used in the past. I created a “ridge pole” out of 2x6’s, supported by 2x4 sawhorse-type legs, for which I actually used metal sawhorse clamps. I wrapped the bottom of the legs in some cheap yoga-mat material to keep them from scuffing up the deck. I also made a support out of doubled-up 2x4’s to rest vertically on the bow fitting, to support the forward end of the ridge.
Then I made bows out of 3/4” PVC electrical conduit, and ran these from a stanchion on one side of the boat, over the ridge and back down to the matching stanchion on the other side. The ends of these bows had rubber crutch tips on them, and the bows were wire-tied to the stanchions, as well as to a hole drilled through the ridge. Intermediate bows were then run between the stanchions, and were wire-tied to the lifelines. To stiffen things up, I attached one longitudinal run of conduit along each side of the bows, with holes drilled in both the bows and longitudinal to wire-tie them together. Over the top, I threw a heavy-duty white poly tarp; it was “laced” at the bow to seal up the forward end, then lashed to the cradle and snugged up. Access to the boat was from the stern, through a tarp zipper run vertically up from the boarding ladder. This worked extremely well; it let in plenty of light, which warmed the area under the cover enough to work in (long) shirtsleeves for much of the winter; and it shed snow well, too. This year, with the mast up, I needed to cut some slits in the tarp for the mast and standing rigging; I reinforced the sides of the slits with doubled-up Gorilla tape, and pulled them together with wire ties. I can highly recommend this approach to allow off-season work on the boat; you can see photos at http://www.postaudio.net/webserver/cover_1.jpg and http://www.postaudio.net/webserver/cover_2.jpg. — Fred Fred Street -- Minneapolis S/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- on the hard in Bayfield, WI :^( > On Nov 7, 2016, at 7:30 AM, Hoyt, Mike via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> > wrote: > > Tony > > One issue with the mast atop the boat is that it limits your work space > unless you are working inside the boat. On our previous boat (J27) we had it > shrink wrapped with the mast on stern and bow pulpits and it was very cramped > to get on and off due to the mast being in the way. On our current boat we > have a Top Shop custom cover and frame. There is sufficient room to work > under this cover > > Mike
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