I thought I might share my makeshift boat home/cover
I decided to build a 'roof' over my I563 because she will not fit into my garage and I'm doing a winter layup of replacing ALL wiring, deck fittings. repainting the interior and putting down some blue non skid paint to add a better under foot grip but also to add a splash of colour to the deck. I wanted a nice place to work in comfort and safety (power equipment ) whilst it was raining, windy and dark. I can stand in the cockpit with ample room above me and can crawl around the deck with ample room above me to make it comfortable. I'll remove the tarp and frame when it comes time to paint but can put this back up to protect the paint when/if the need arises. My main objective was a protective environment in which to do my refurbishing.
Given that my I563 will not fit in the garage it's parked outside so a cover was needed. I was given some good ideas but settled on building a skeleton frame using 40mm PVC tubing, 45° bends at the uprights and 90° at the top. using some good ole maths skills and knowing that I had 2 angles of 45°, one of 90°, the length across the beam and the height I wanted for the 'roof' I was able to work out lengths of PVC pipe I needed for the rake and height. Also having an equal roofline ridge allowed for an equal pull down on the heavy duty tarp covering.
All up I spent $64 on the PVC pipe, angled connectors and a 3.4m X 6m Heavy duty Tarp (on sale at Supercheap..yay)
After some trial and error in securely tying down the tarp I've now got it secured and BEST part....it has well and truly survived without drama 2 HUGE gales here in Tas. It has survived wind gust up to 80kph and severe gust up to 100+ kph and as mentioned without drama.
I must admit on the last severe storm I was up at 2am with the outside lights on just watching the tarp and wow, it held up superbly so after a nervous 30min I was off to bed and woke to see the cover in 1 piece and just as secure as when I left it.
Here she is:
The 40mm PVC uprights sit on the staunction stainless steel bases so as to not mark the deck when the wind blows and moves them. Yes, that's duct tape and wow, what fantastic stuff lol
EDIT: Added some photos (because we all love photos) of the actual frame work made out of PVC tubing
Oh, by the way.... Yes, the 40odd Kg of bricks chocking the wheels do serve a worthwhile purpose because we live so close to the coast 2 mins (look... you can see the ocean (Bass Strait) from our home ) it blows a gale here somedays... we have had the odd tree in the neighbourhood fall because of high winds but in what I would say was a bad gale a few weeks ago (100+ Kph winds) the cover and boat did not budge... not even a cm
And... now back to the original posting
Looking down the guts of the cover, you can clearly see the 40mm PVC tubing Rakes and the 'roof's" constant ridgeline.
Another similar view of the uprights, rake and ridge line
The transom end is partially closed so wind does not create too much pressure inside and is also partially open at the bow to create a nice flow through.
As mentioned, this setup has survived 2 severe storms already and I think has proved its worth and other than a fortnightly check of the lines holding the tarp down she has worked a charm.
Cheers, Pete
