Cover support ideas for tin boats kept on a mooring

Well, one night and I learned my lesson...that was too much flex going straight from one side to the other. Three of the rod sections broke at the center ferrules the wind kicked up today. Fortunately it was before I set the snaps and before the broken poles could penetrate the cover. So, version 2.0 involves crisscrossing the poles and provides a convenient point to join them with a tarp canopy bungee. Hopefully the picture depicts it well enough to see.



Unfortunately this spans a wider area and requires yet another bag of poles...so they're adding up. However, it should eliminate the cost of the webbed nylon strap so that should help.

Criss crossing the poles worked perfectly - we had a nasty thunderstorm with heavy rain & wind & everything was dry underneath & no pooling!!!! Time to attach the snaps & FINALLY MOOR THE BOAT BEHIND THE HOUSE!!

NO MORE 30 minute drives to the lake, with another 30 minutes lost loading/launching/trailering/cleaning & packing up the boat.

This is brilliant man, I may steal this idea for just covering my boat at home!

If you do these are the 9mm tent poles I ordered that come with the nipple ferrules for easy insertion into a drilled hole.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001A74VMK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

or I just found these suppliers that you can buy individual components

https://tentpoletechnologies.com/?page_id=865
https://www.questoutfitters.com/tent_poles.htm
https://goodwinds.com/connectors/ferrules.html

I like it when projects are finalized and WORK....

Some good ideas here.

Now, if I could just figure out how to put a cover on my G3 which is moored on a dock. But, the dock is only on one side. Can't see how I could drop the cover on it easily enough. I don't want a 30 minute job every time I stop fishing. I try to fish three and four times a week.

richg99

HA!!! To have a dock...I have a pile of 2 pallets held in place by some rocks and the silt & gravel that have accumulated in them.

In my town in CT it involves over $1,000 worth of permits between the concrete block on the shoreline to attach a dock & for the dock itself - forget the building material costs! All on an unnatural pooled stretch of river behind a power generating dam on a river contaminated with PCB's and other industrial waste from a GE plant upstream in MA...not exactly a justifiable target of heavy-handed conservation!

So I started making use of material I found in the river anyway.


Prior to this boat I had a 12' sea nymph out there with a cover on it that kept the leaves & debris out. This boat will likely only have the poles setup when it's going to rain to make covering it on the water easier. I still will need the cover as it's moored under the trees overhanging the bank & will be full of junk overnight if i left it.