Top or no top

[speedklz]

I bought a general mooring cover for the toon and its a pain in the rump to put back on every time.. How much damage to the interior to just leave it uncovered. I put 303 on it regularly..

[Bamaman]

I agree about it being such a pain to put on and off. I only put my mooring cover on November to the end of March. But we keep it in a boathouse out of direct sunlight.

The trick is keeping the seats out of direct sunlight and dry.

The penalty for leaving boats uncovered in the sun and weather is having to spend big $ to replace the upholstery.

[BobG]

We use the 303 on the camper, and keep the camper on, when it's in the driveway.

[Bryden24shp]

[quote="Bamaman"]I agree about it being such a pain to put on and off. I only put my mooring cover on November to the end of March. But we keep it in a boathouse out of direct sunlight.

The trick is keeping the seats out of direct sunlight and dry.

The penalty for leaving boats uncovered in the sun and weather is having to spend big $ to replace the upholstery.[/quote

Agreed, the sun will fade it, drain it of its texture and it will eventually start to crack. Plus you are constantly cleaning and bird crap, can stain the heck out the upholstery. I know the covers are a pain. But after awhile, you find your niche at it. My Manitou and Premier were both a pain at first, but after awhile, it gets to be 2nd nature. So much that when the wife or kids help me, it feels like a hinderence. But, I love it and appreciate that they want to help. I just keep quiet and roll with it. You'll get used to it!

[Bryden24shp]

We use the 303 on the camper, and keep the camper on, when it's in the driveway.

Bob buys 303 in 5 gallon drums... Just kidding! Thats a beautiful sight with the camper top on! Nice!

[BobG]

Bob buys 303 in 5 gallon drums... Just kidding! Thats a beautiful sight with the camper top on! Nice!

Seriously - we just got an Overton's catalog, and they have it for only $70 a GALLON! We DO use a lot of it. We use it on our hot-tub cover too, and at 9,000 feet elevation, the UV is just BRUTAL. Our first cover lasted 10 years, on the deck, on the south side of our house, with almost no shade. The people at the Spa place were amazed that it lasted that long.

[GXPWeasel]

Damn, I was hoping this was a couple pictures of some hot chick, with and without a bikini top, and you wanted our opinion.

Seriously though...
I"ve never NOT put the cover on out boat, unless we were camping. At first, this took me about 15minutes each time to put the cover on, or take if off, but now, maybe 5 minutes tops. To me, 5 minutes, is worth not having to spend the $$$ on new interior, and not having to scrub bird crap off the seats. Our toon still looks damn near new, and it's a 2005. The cover doesn't, but hey, that's what they're made for Jack!

[evinrude2stroke]

Yea, I was hoping it was one of BMR's posts. Damn!
To answer you question, I hate putting the mooring cover on BUT, I hate having to clean the seats & carpet for an hour before heading out even more. If it's not the bird poop its the spider poop... or the duck poop... or the dead gnats all over the seats. Taking the 15 minutes to attach the cover will save you much more time when you want to just get in and go.

[badmoonrising]

Well my mooring cover was worn out in 6 seasons. If it weren't covered, my seats wouldn't still look like new. You sacrifice a $300 mooring cover or pay big $$ to replace seats...

[kryptonite]

I find that you need to have a system down when taking the cover off. Find a good flat spot that you can fold it to, like on top of the sundeck. Then when you put the cover back on reverse the order, makes it twice as easy.

[Gonefishing]

While look at it this way. A little more time saves the seats or no cover and replace all the seat in 1-2 years. Sun and water will eat up the seats in no time. A friend of mine purchased his boat 3 years after I did. Had. Mine6 years and traded it. Seats looked like new. His looks like someone tore up the news paper.

[MH Hawker]

After dropping 4000 into new carpet and stock and custom furniture last year I added a 1200 custom dock cover, no brainier.

[tuned]

For what it's worth--When I had a custom top made for my cuddy, the tailor gave me a couple of tips about snaps that I didn't know.
If your cover is new, then the snaps will wear in a bit and eventually be easier to latch and unlatch. He also recommended a tool (el cheapo) to use if they are stiff, so that I didn't cause damage to the top fabric.
He also used two different 'strengths' of snaps, depending on where they were in the wind. After giving it a try, it was an easy job to switch over to the lighter snaps in a few areas. Made it much easier.

Nowadays, I feel fortunate to not have a single snap or zipper on board. It was a love/hate kind of a thing.

[bassn386]

Ditto on what the others are saying about putting the cover on. Our slip is covered but it is not immune from birds, insects and spiders, all of which find their way into the most inaccessible parts of the boat (even with the cover on sometimes).
One tip on the snaps. Buy a couple of Chapstix (unscented) and apply a light coating to each of the male snaps. It will make snapping and unsnapping so much easier. Shurhold makes a product in the same style tube as Chapstix, but I'm sure it's a lot more. Make sure the Chapstix is even with the top of the tube, then press it on to the snap and remove, making sure some of the material is on the snap.

[rsmith]

Save your interior, put the cover on it all the time! The only times we don't take the 5-10 minutes to cover our toon is when the camper is up (we have blackout curtains for it as well) and when we leave for the day knowing for sure we'll be back the next morning (and there is not much chance of storms).

We've also noticed that boats that get buttoned up nicely seem to be less likely to have stuff disappear from them.

And don't forget the 303! I buy it by the gallon and like Bob I use it on the hot tub cover, BBQ cover, etc. If it wasn't for the damn hail last summer of tub cover would still look new.