Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Anyone use a "full" cover for outdoor mooring? I'm tired of algae growing on the bits of carpet that the (old) mooring cover didn't cover. I just ordered (have not yet received) a Westland Sunbrella "exact fit cover" for mine, and was going to do the (Carver) sandbag thing on the sides, to hold it down, and use the tent poles from my old mooring cover (bought the plastic vented pole caps too). I figure I may have to take it to a local canvas shop to have the cleats exposed once I get it.

My questions are:

Is it hard to put the full cover on (I only have dock on the front and one side of the boat).

Do they stay attached to the boat pretty good if it gets windy? I'm in a channel, so I won't see "main lake" gusts and waves.

I put my cover on at the dock. I only have access on the passenger side. My cover is attached with snaps though. It holds up to the wind fine. As far as difficulty it is not bad. I start on the back corner away from the dock and do the back and then side. I use the doors to crawl under and finish snapping the cover and then put up the poles. If you use weights to hold the cover down make sure they don't hurt your boat by them banging in winds.

So you have a full size cover, not a mooring cover, with snaps?

I used a full cover on my last 3 toons while they sat in the water during the week. I only had one side access when putting it on for the last 8 years (last year, I put in a lift with access to both sides and the front).

All my covers have had snaps. I would start with the front corner (the water, not the dock, side). Work my way back while leaning over the water side. Then I move to the side that the dock was on and continue. I would then crawl on the back and enter via the door next to the engine and put the tent poles up. Really not that big a deal (maybe 10 minutes)..... other than hanging out in the Louisiana heat under the cover on a Sunday afternoon. The good news is I sweated out all the beer I had drank that weekend.

Yeah, North Texas in August will feel a lot like LA. Where did they put the snaps on the full cover? Down on the rub rail?

On all 3 of my boats, they had a top rail (where Bimini mounts) then fence/siding then the "rub rail". The female end of the snaps were mounted there - from the factory.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a stationary top on the boat dock that extends out and covers the boat?

I'd think building one wouldn't even be more $ than a custom full cover.

My pontoon stays in a double boathouse with a large overhang. I'd hate to think I had to deal with unsnapping that mooring cover more often than October-March.

A neighbor told me about 8 grand to get the pipe sunk, and the roof put on, and buy dock wood etc. he did the dock wood himself. I'm pretty handy, I will look into what pipe alone would cost. On a big resoviour, we need that stout pipe...

On our lake, all the docks and boathouses are on 4" steel poles driven into the bottom of the lake until they hit bedrock--about 42" deep. They can be driven with a hand held pole driver. I understand that in the far north, you cannot use such construction because of the hard freezes and thick ice. We are fortunate that our water levels never go up and down more than 18".

We had our 14' x 30' boathouse frame installed by a professional, and then we built the pier beside it and a truss roof. The price really wasn't that bad--about $6K plus the cost of the wood deck. I've since added a second lean to and a 3000 pound hoist for my Waverunner.