Tarp & Ridge Pole

The week after the boat found its new home on the trailer, it rained. A lot.

I immediately discovered two things.

The first was that I needed a cover, soon.

The second was that all the drain holes were too high, allowing rain water to accumulate in the forward deck well and Dorade boxes, and in the footwell.

The footwell in particular held a huge amount of water.

So, I will need to enlarge the holes at some point so they drain properly. I'm not sure when that will happen, now that she is outside and winter drawing nearer.

Nonetheless a cover was needed immediately to keep that water out.

So I bought a cheap plastic tarpaulin from the DIY store and tied it down with string. Here it is.

And here is the view from astern.

Oh dear. Poor PocketShip. That is not a good look, but it will have to do until I can get a proper cover made.

It rained again that night and there was a large pool of water in the middle of the tarp in the morning, sagging down heavily.

So I knocked up a 'ridgepole' to support the tarp. Here it is in place.

It worked, but it's quite flimsy and I doubted that it would support a canvas cover. So I made a much stronger version for future use. This is it.

That will do the trick.

I gave it four coats of Danish oil and put it up in the rafters to await deployment. I will pad the ends before installation.

Now I just need to find someone who can make a cover for me.