Tarps on boats typically cause as many problems as they solve. They obstruct access, rattle in the wind, risk rubbing the boat if in contact with (or lashed to) the hull, and don’t shed snow unless carefully framed to do so. So while Fly was necessarily under full tarp cover for a while, I didn’t really like the arrangement… and hated it when those Alkathene hoops buckled under the snow they couldn’t shed and loaded up the tarp over squashed tarp frame!
So I don’t normally like tarps on boats, but what I built this week is good (to allow work with the main hatch open any day and shed snow if I leave it up). Started Monday evening and finished tonight in equally gash, midgey conditions…
Now you can see it’s not your average tarp set-up at all… more a proper little roof for which I’d actually considered using proper little roofing but just happened to finish with a tarp instead. It’s strongly built (starting with the A-frames in my workshop, then everything else screwed together in-situ), steeply pitched (45°), and the tarp’s securely lashed to frame, not boat, with a ‘door’ at the top of the ladder easily opened and secured by a couple of half hitches in a dedicated short length of rope.
So what more could you want in the ‘good tarp’ world except perhaps an equivalent, smaller shelter to help with the bow well job? And, while we could move this one at some stage and support it up there somehow, I think I’d prefer to leave it where it is through the winter and build another to fit… and you know I’ve still got some wood from a false start on Monday when I guestimated and cut the A-frame pieces for this one too short? ;-)