Boat Cover | Making the Support Frame

When the boat was first moved outside onto its trailer, it immediately became obvious that it needed a decent cover to keep it clean and dry during the wet UK winter.

I tried using a plastic tarpaulin, but that was hopeless, so I had a really good canvas cover made by SealSeam - a specialist UK cover manufacturer.

That was excellent, but as soon as it rained the canvas bellied down into the cockpit and filled with water, so I quickly made a ridgepole to fit between the companionway slide and the transom skirt to hold the canvas cover up above the cockpit.

That worked to certain extent, but the canvas still sagged either side of the ridgepole and formed deep pools of rainwater.

It was obvious that a more substantial framework was required, to fully support the canvas.

But before I could make anything the original marine paint failed and blistered in the wet weather, and the boat immediately went back inside the workshop without further ado.

Now, however, we were about to move her outside again.

And a substantial support framework for the cover was required to prevent the same thing happening again.

I decided to make a new and better ridgepole.

And to hold and support the canvas I decided to make four support arms to fit between the ridgepole and the seatback tops on each side of the cockpit.

I thought that should do the trick!

So I started by making a new ridgepole, fitting a plywood tongue at each end of a length of inexpensive studding timber from the builders' merchants.

Here I am fitting the tongue to the front of the pole, where it sits on top of the companionway slide.

Next I made  a set of support arms - four on each side of the ridgepole - to span the cockpit.

Here they are in a trial fit using the original ridgepole, to get the correct dimensions.

I connected the arms and the ridgepole with hooks and eyes, like this.

These are just plain steel, to be used while working out how it all works.

The outer ends of the arms were chamfered, to sit flat on the seatback tops. Like this.

Next I rounded over the edges of the new ridgepole, to provide a smooth surface for the canvas cover. Here I am working with the router.

This is my ancient Elu 1/4" router, fitted with a 1/2" round over cutter.

The support arms received the same treatment, using the router table. Like this.

Next came a trial fit of the new arms on the new ridgepole. Here they are, looking good.

At this point the ends of the support arms have all been trimmed, shaped and rounded to sit nicely on the seatback tops. Like this.

All the support arms were then varnished and left to cure, as here.

The same thing happened to the ridgepole. Like this.

Lastly the support arms were fitted with A4 stainless steel hooks and labelled. Here they are.

The labels indicate port and starboard, front to back. It's amazing how they vary slightly in length from side to side - PocketShip is not 100% symmetrical!

Here are the labels.

Now came the final coats of varnish to the ridgepole. This is the last one being applied.

Now it was time fit all the pieces together!

The tongues at the front and rear of the ridgepole needed to be padded, to prevent scratches and slippage.

I used non-slip pads designed for furniture, from Gorilla. This is a quality brand which I have used before, so I was confident the pads would work. Here they are.

These are large square pads which needed to be cut to size for the ridgepole. Here are the cutting tools.

The self-adhesive pads were exactly what was needed.

This is the rear bracket of the ridgepole.

And this is the front bracket.

Next stainless steel eyes were fitted to the ridgepole and it was installed, together with its support arms.

This is how it looked.

I had also fitted non-slip pads to the support arms, like this.

These were also by Gorilla - 1" diameter. This is them.

So far, so good. The support frame was ready for a trial fitting of the canvas cover.

So it was retrieved from the cupboard inside the house where it had been languishing and fitted to the boat.

Here is the cover, viewed from the stern.

That looks good. And here is the view from the bow.

That looks good too.

I did briefly wonder if the forward deck well might need its own small ridgepole, but I don't recall that being a problem before so we will leave it for now. It will be a simple addition if it turns out to be useful.

So that's the support framework complete, and another task ticked of the list.

Next up is to add her name to the transom.

We are getting there!!!