BR20 mast down cover recommendations please

[Graham W]

I've barely sailed this season and Turaco is coming home next week.  Apart from a stint in Cornwall when the Mylor event should have taken place and the odd day out on the Medway, Turaco has remained firmly on her trailer.  Lockdowns, grandchildren and cancelled raids all conspired to keep me off the water.

Next year will be better!  I'm looking forward to a week or more in Scotland.  And at least two raids, maybe more depending on what the yard organises.

As my garage is now a mini industrial estate, full of vintage US woodworking machinery, I need a better outdoor mast down cover for my BR20.  One that won't flap about in the winter wind but keep everything well aired.  I've tried Rain & Sun, who to my surprise don't seem very interested.  Has anyone got any other recommendations, preferably from a supplier that already has all the BR20 measurements?

[Peter Cockerton]

Graham

https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,1972.msg12962.html#msg12962

Contact this lady to enquire if she is still in the business, i know she made a cover for another BR20 owner so she has all the measurements to make another.

Peter C

[boomerangben]

The cover Dad bought for Gobhlan seems to work well. I know it's for a BRe but hopefully there's a BR version. I'm sat waiting for a ferry so won't see the boat for a week or so and I can't remember the name of the maker but here's a photo....... I can't make out the words, but maybe the logo is familiar?

[Graham W]

Contact this lady to enquire if she is still in the business

Thanks Peter, I've sent her an email.

[Graham W]

The cover Dad bought for Gobhlan seems to work well. I can't make out the words, but maybe the logo is familiar?

Thanks Ben.  That's Rain & Sun, the ones that I am having trouble getting a response from.  I'll keep trying.

[Graham W]

Peter's recommended Lena is still in business but doesn't keep patterns.  So anyone wanting to use her would need to take their boat to West Wales to be measured up.

I've also asked Wilkinsons Sails, who are extremely local to me in Kent, if they could make a cover for me.

A new copy of the cover that needs replacing and flaps too much in the wind is still for sale on eBay for the princely sum of £20.

To be continued....

[MarkDarley]

My cover was ordered from Swallow when Pippin was restored by them.  It fits great and is extremely stout.  I highly recommend it.  Give Lara a call.

[Graham W]

Mark,

I was the proud owner of one of those covers for all of 12 months, until I foolishly left it on the ground and the mice ate large parts of it. 

[MarkDarley]

Based on that, I might rethink storing Pippin in a friend's barn this winter.......safer outside in the garden?

[Matthew P]

Being stingy I've used inexpensive tarps and replaced them when they inevitably get worn or UV damaged.  Unless you are hindered by ideas of smartness or want to trail the boat with a tarp in place then it seems to me that the most useful principles are:

1 Level the boat and trailer so that any water ingress drains from the seats and cockpit floor to the drainage sump - which of course should have self drainers open

2 Ensure adequate ventilation into the boat interior, by leaving the end open at the stern

3 Fit a ridge pole (preferably not the mast) over the length of the boat to shed water

4 Avoid direct contact between tarp and wooden gunwales etc and also sticky-up abrasion points such as shroud attachments with padding

5 Maintain cover tautness and water collecting sags by using ELASTIC tie-downs.   Simply tightening the straps usually supplied with even the best fitted tarps, no matter how tight, will not work.   I use inexpensive elastic luggage straps despite the vicious eye-removing hooks.  Make sure they are properly elastic and not the feeble me-too versions sold in pound shops. With elastic straps it seems that each time the wind disturbs a tarp it exercises elastic straps which then take up the slack.

Storing under a roof of some sort is the best option.  I now use a 20x10x8 garage-tent bought second hand for a couple of hundred quid hand on Facebook. The drawbar on a BR20 sticks out of the end but that's easily covered-up or remove the winch post and pull the boat forward on the trailer. 

See https://www.clarketooling.co.uk/product/clarke-cig81020-heavy-duty-instant-garage-green-6-1-x-3-0-x-2-4m/

Matthew
BR17 Tarika etc


                   

[Graham W]

Matthew,

I would dearly love a 6m long Clarke mobile garage for the boat.  However, I have already taken over a significant chunk of the garden with a climbing frame the size of Fort Dunlop and I fear that the head gardener would veto it.

Why don't you like using the mast as a ridge pole for your tarp?  Trapped moisture?  Likewise avoiding contact with the gunwales?

I brought Turaco home from Medway Yacht Club today, after weeks of scandalous neglect.  The mast up cover and sail covers seem to have done their job and she appears to have suffered no ill effects.  Several hibernating queen wasps were dislodged in the process.

[Sea Simon]

Agree that cover ends are best left at least part open, so as to promote air flow...however, a word of caution from my experiences, twice over.

First was a racing dinghy at Southampton. An animal got into the boat and "collected" several plastic bobbles on the ends of ropes...expensive dyneema rope! Likely a squirrel?
I hope the little b@st@rd consequently starved to death one cold winter morning, having dug up his "stash" to feast!

Second was a farm cat or similar "nesting" in my Lugger,  likely to give birth?
Luckily only in the cockpit! No chewing necessary to gain access.

I now use loose, open balls of old mono netting, stuffed into any open access points. Also seems to keep out birds.

[Matthew P]

Hi Graham   

I sympathise with your head gardener. Climbing frames for kids to develop agility and strength and become nimble future crew has priority over a parked boat. 

Yes, the risk of trapped moisture between impermeable plastic tarp and wood, even well varnished, seems a recipe for rot.  I've got bored repeatedly rubbing down and gooping wood when the weather is good enough for gooping and hence good enough to go sailing. Gunwales are particularly prone to acting like blocked gutters for any condensation or leaks.  Even a few bits trapped of rope now and again between the gunwale and tarp let air in and stop moisture collecting.   Writing this makes me begin to think a permeable cover is worthwhile despite the expense.

Also it simply seems a bad idea to lay a mast horizontally in a position under constant bending load beneath a tensioned tarp where it will experience maximum variation in temperature and possibly moisture. I don't think a few weeks will do any harm, especially in the summer but a whole winter is different.  I have a sad (sag?) collection of old wind surfer masts I use as ridge poles.

Hi Sea Simon, yes its a good idea to put a net or some obstruction to birds/rats/children and other wild life taking up winter quarters in the boat.  I have sometimes wondered what happens if bats take up residence - would one be allowed to deliberately evict them?

Must be "material" for "Apears" to "pun"-ish us with some "t-arpaulin" comments on this "thread".

Matthew
BR17 Tarika and others
             

[Graham W]

Matthew,

I've had a quote of £475 plus VAT for a less than full length cover.  That's more than enough to convince me to go down your tarp route.  I need to remove the mast for serious maintenance anyway and I've got an old gunter yard that can act as a 4.2m ridge pole.  I like the curly rope idea for the gunwales.  My new tarp is already on order and I just need to find some of Simon's netting to stop up both ends.

[Matthew P]

I like the curly rope idea for the gunwales.

Perhaps you could use a net (maybe the one you cover your cockpit with when towing) between the tarpaulins and gunwales to provide an airgap and drainage.  I've  not tried it but I'd be interested to see if it works.

If the net also droops over the ventilation gap at the stern it might also prevent larger forms of wild life taking up residence. 

Matthew
BR17 Tarika