ok little upset right now what should i do?

[shawn22]

i just found out today that my cover on my boat for the winter did not hold i found a mass of ice inside the boat resting on the back bench it is melting and there is water inside the boat it is draining slowley should i be worried about the water freezing again and will this cause serious problems for me it should be warming up here in a few week what were should i check for soft spots and so forth any info here would help

 

[Old Navy]

If you can get that ice out of there and dry it out, you'll be OK. Soft spots are from repeated long term exposure to moisture. Maybe you can remove the seat and bring it inside to dry it. Don't panic just don't let it happen too often.

 

[JUPITER PULSARE]

I would make every attempt to get the water/ice out of the boat. Prop up your "cover" with a pole, open the bench seat to air it out, tilt the boat up so the water will drain, drop a fan into the boat for a couple of days to circlulate air and dry things out....

 

[shawn22]

thanks i'll put a fan in tommarow to get the air moving got the seat up and the ice and most the water out there are a few frozen spots still but i think it will be ok thanks guys i just hate to see it get ruined

 

[Chris E]

try shrinkwrapping next year - with a peak, the snow slides off - thats what i do. no maintenance in the winter.

 

[81 enchanter]

i've used a couple covers with a peak in the middle and a vinal car port. the car port costs less then shrinkwrapping the boat and you can use it again. good luck!

 

[remlinger]

Survey the inside of the hull really really good. Any cracks in the glass which water can get down into the wood will when it freezes be blown apart. This happened to me.

Good Luck, I know what your going thru. Oh by the way this happened when I had my boat shrink wraped. Since then I built a PVC frame which gets install in the cockpit prior to covering to support he weight of the snow and allow it to run off as well as use a poly tarp first lay and then cover over with a heavy duck cloth cover. Works really well even when a tree dropped a 6" branch on the boat. It just bounced off with no damage at all.

50 degrees today.

 

[themcguires]

Last year I had to store an Enchanter and a Tri-mate outside. Both tarps caved in so I took some ply-wood and cut them to span across the boats then wraped them with tarps. I think its the only guaranteed way to avoid a cave in.

 

[winter]

That stinks indeed. i'm working on getting a new cover for my mate and decided that i'd buy a cheap one and then toss a blue tarp over the cockpit to not allow water inside, in case the cheap cover doesn't hold out rain. I store the boat in a garage in the winter, so no ice worries there. But in the summer, i'm worried about repeated intrusion of water. And i always try to tilt the boat as high as it can go, so water is forced out the back. I'll even place a junk wheel under the jack for extra height.

 

[IUalum]

A few years back I had an old Lone Star 16' boat and covered it in tarps for the winter and stored in a lot (people weren't shrink wrapping then) and I couldn't afford a cover (still in college). During a blizzard the tarps all blew off and the boat filled with water during several rain storms and something plugged the drain hole. All the water then froze during the winter. In early spring I went to check on it and the entire hull was a frozen solid block of ice. I still have nightmares about it.

 

[Blizz]

Jack up your nose abit if you haven't this will make what that water is still in your boat exit immediatly and not be able to creep under the floor to much if it gets into your foam to much it will never dry. And as said above shrinkwrapping is best but if a regular tarp is used rightit will last all winter. Here's a pic of an old runabout i keep here for playing in the river nothing fancy but no snow entered boat and survived 14+ feet of snowfall this year. pic is 3 days old. And i only swept it off once because of freezing rain.

 

[winter]

eegaaads!!! 14 feet of snow? looks like you are a good ways away from boating! We had next to no snow here in Pa. this year, a reall bummer. But we should be on the lake within a month or less.

Jack up your nose abit if you haven't this will make what that water is still in your boat exit immediatly and not be able to creep under the floor to much if it gets into your foam to much it will never dry. And as said above shrinkwrapping is best but if a regular tarp is used rightit will last all winter. Here's a pic of an old runabout i keep here for playing in the river nothing fancy but no snow entered boat and survived 14+ feet of snowfall this year. pic is 3 days old. And i only swept it off once because of freezing rain.