We needed to build a stable winter cover to keep the boat through the winter and also to make it possible to work on it through the off-season.
The idea to use 1/2" pvc electrical conduit as the structure to hold the tarp came from a fellow T22 owner at TS&CC (and I believe that she got the idea from another club member before that). The logic behind using flexible conduit is that it can move a little with the wind, both shaking off snow in the winter and absorbing some of the force of the wind during a storm. Structures built out of less flexible material have been known to do damage to the boat in a windstorm because they transfer all the stress to their respective points of attachment.
In addition, the flexible conduit was both cheap and easy. Angie, my Dad and I were able to put the whole thing together in a little over an hour (from scratch, it should be even quicker next year).
We choose a white tarp (20 x 30 ft.) over the heavier, silver versions because it lets some light in. When it is sunny, it is quite bright under the tarp and it has a bit of a greenhouse effect. So far the tarp has held up well, but it is still early.
On the advice of others, we used shock cord (two spools of 50') to tie the tarp down. Like the conduit, the shock cord will have a bit of give to absorb some of the stress of wind gusts. Again, it is early, but I was inside the boat when we were experiencing our heaviest windstorm of the Fall (up to 80 km/hr gusts) and the whole structure held up quite well.
The idea to use 1/2" pvc electrical conduit as the structure to hold the tarp came from a fellow T22 owner at TS&CC (and I believe that she got the idea from another club member before that). The logic behind using flexible conduit is that it can move a little with the wind, both shaking off snow in the winter and absorbing some of the force of the wind during a storm. Structures built out of less flexible material have been known to do damage to the boat in a windstorm because they transfer all the stress to their respective points of attachment.
In addition, the flexible conduit was both cheap and easy. Angie, my Dad and I were able to put the whole thing together in a little over an hour (from scratch, it should be even quicker next year).
We choose a white tarp (20 x 30 ft.) over the heavier, silver versions because it lets some light in. When it is sunny, it is quite bright under the tarp and it has a bit of a greenhouse effect. So far the tarp has held up well, but it is still early.
On the advice of others, we used shock cord (two spools of 50') to tie the tarp down. Like the conduit, the shock cord will have a bit of give to absorb some of the stress of wind gusts. Again, it is early, but I was inside the boat when we were experiencing our heaviest windstorm of the Fall (up to 80 km/hr gusts) and the whole structure held up quite well.