Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I'm new to pontoons and bought a 2014 Southbay in June
I store it outside with the factory Sunbrella cover that snaps with 4 telescope poles
Each time I t rains I find that I get water in a couple areas - one being by the
Helm and another area by the rf seat. It's pretty wet and the rest of the carpet is dry
My question is do these covers leak at the seems? Or is it something you just need to live with? Any comments would help.

Thanks

You may need to give it a treatment of 303 fabric guard. a new cover is often good for 2 to 3 years before it needs treating.
I doubt its sumbrella most of the factory covers are made from some thing else, Sumbrella is to expensive for them.

MH Hawker wrote:You may need to give it a treatment of 303 fabric guard. a new cover is often good for 2 to 3 years before it needs treating.
I doubt its sumbrella most of the factory covers are made from some thing else, Sumbrella is to expensive for them.

Yeah, Sunbrella is costly. Earlier this year when I thought I was going to have to store my boat outside, I talked to a local man that makes custom boat covers, and his quote for my 20 footer was right around 1600 bucks.... Thank goodness I still get to keep her indoors....

Ok ! I think I'm wrong on the type of cover I have !!!! It's the one that comes with the Southbay from the factory. I was referring to that type of cover verses the "blue" plastic tarp or what ever there made of.
The factory cover seems to be well made "the one I have " but I'm concerned with it leaking every time it rains the carpet and floor will stay wet and may cause other problems. I know it's a boat and it's supposed to get wet but I'm concerned because it seems it's getting wet in 2 particular places every rain.

Thanks

Covers are made of breathable material, but if you get puddles in certain spots, it will become saturated and drip through. Try propping those areas up so water runs off. (I used a beach ball or a life vest on mine) or try raising the poles a bit higher.

Leave the bow and stern gates open, so you get some air moving under the cover, or you'll be dealing with mildew.

Enjoy your new toon.

Does your cover go all the way down and snap to the rub rail below the fence or does it snap to the upper part of the fence below any railings? If it is like my cover, it snaps to the fence below the rails, but the fence has spacers under it so an heavy rains would come under the fence and still get the carpet wet. Also, my cover didn't go over the area outside of the fence at the rear of the boat -- so that carpet stayed wet. I always had to keep the trailer tongue propped up high so any water that ran under the fence could run towards the back of the boat. Now we keep it on a covered lift. My cover is more to keep the sun off of the seats but not really to keep rain out.

It snaps at the center of the rail 1/2 way down around the back and goes down in the front of the boat and covers the carpet - I guess the thing that has me is there's only 2 places that get drenched. I do keep the toung up. The leak actually goes under my steering wheel and where my gauges are there's a place for storage and a door. It's like it's coming from underneath because dips in the molded fiberglass dash does not appear to be wet.

Just a thought! Fence rails are raised these days(1/4). Water may be coming down the top and down the fence and coming under the fence. Extending the cover below the deck might help.

Okay, so you said the water is under the helm and the rf seat -- both of which would be the starboard side of the boat. So when the boat is on the trailer and stored, is the starboard side of the boat facing to the West or Southwest? Most likely the rain is blowing in under your fence from that side. It's also possible that the water is coming in at the front between the fence and the cover that extends from the snap position on the fence and extends down to the deck snap position. If rain is blown up into this space on the starboard side, then it would run down the starboard side of the boat since you have the tongue raised.

Try storing it where it faces a different direction and see if that changes your wet areas. If so, you may need to park it so the bow of the boat is facing into the direction of any storms (either West or Southwest for summer storms).

Before I built the boat port for the old Manitou, I had about the same problem. Even with the poles up super tight, the cover had a small dip in it, where it went over the top of the starboard bows lounger. It would puddle up on top of the cover where the back of the lounger met the helm and leaked down. As soon as I figured this out, (while watching it during a storm) I took a extendable snowbrush, cut off the brush section and put a duct tape ball on the end. Stuck it at an angle between the floor and the sag of the cover. Then cranked the bow down so it ran off the front of the boat... Fixed it.
Ya, I would try to figure it out so you don't end up with a mold and mildew problem down the road. A damp interior, covered during a hot summer day is the perfect mildew growing environment.

I had a cover made a few years ago and ended up with 6 poles to keep the sag out, its been good since. had to add 2 in the front corners.