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Boat Cover 101

By John Funk, March 15, 2019

Covering Your Boat is the First Step

If you are already covering your boat, good for you! You are already doing one of the single most important things to protect your investment, and you deserve a pat on the back. However, there may still be a few things you haven’t taken into account that can help to prolong both the life of the cover and your boat. Here are some boat cover tips that will help you do just that.

Using Boat Cover Tie Downs

When you secure the cover to the boat, you are not only ensuring that it will be there the next time you come to use your boat, you are also helping to decrease the likelihood of water pooling on it. The quickest way to degrade a material is to let water sit on it. When you use our tie down system.Making sure the boat cover is pulled down on the sides so that it’s not drooping into the middle, creating pockets and collecting water. Tying down your cover is the first and most important thing you can do to extend the life of your cover, and therefore your boat.

Supporting Your Cover

Supporting your boat cover is the second most important thing to do to help make sure it lasts as long as it should. A properly cared for and supported cover can easily outlast its warranty! Tying your cover down is great, but supporting it really goes hand in hand with tying it down. When you both support and tie the cover down, you can create a nice tented effect, which will help to make sure water runs off the cover efficiently. As we said earlier, water pooling on your cover will only degrade the material, and no one wants to have to replace their cover because of something that could have been easily avoided. You can support your boat cover in a number of ways, depending on the layout of your boat. The most important type of boat to use supports for would be a pontoon, simply because there isn’t a lot sticking up above the rails. Bass boats come with built in supports- pedestal seats! Just leave your seats up and fold the backs down. Boats like center consoles will already be somewhat supported because of the console’s height. With any type of boat, purchasing (or crafting your own) supports can never hurt. A boat cover support system or boat cover support pole is an easy way to offer your cover support and help it last for years to come.

If You Don’t Already Have a Cover….

You know what’s coming next- if you aren’t already covering your boat, you should be. Covering your boat gives you a ton of benefits, the main one being protecting it. There are of course other reasons to cover your boat, such as cutting down on cleaning time and preserving your boat’s value, whether you are planning on selling it one day or passing it on to your family.