Canoe Cover Disaster

[woodencanoeguy]

I recently zipped my 1923 OTCA, completely restored in 2009, into a brand new "Classic" brand canoe cover. I got it fromSportsmen's Guide, though the brand is available at lots of places online, all praising its weather resistance. Tthe cover looked great - heavy, vinyl coated canvas, sturdy zipper, well-made. Like a zip-lock bag for a canoe. The boat is stored outdoors on my trailer (I have no place indoors). It snowed, then froze, then melted, and when I opened the bag after just a month with the boat in it I found that it had leaked a gallon or so and that the vinyl coating on the canvas was stuck like glue to the boat's paint (latex over new dacron with 3 coats of aquacoat). Large sheets of paint came off when the canvas was peeled away, ruining the finish. I'm now looking at hundreds of hours of repair work on a boat that looked new in December.

Has anyone had good luck with a cover suitable for year-round outdoor storage?

 

[john hupfield]

If I have to leave them out I invert them on horses and cover them loosly with a standard tarp. If I get more then 5 inches of snow I clear them off.
I have never trusted heavy vinyl for winter storage.
I have had no disasters in years.
John

 

[Dan Lindberg]

Mine aren't "out" like yours, but on a covered rack and with tarps covering the side. I don't want anything to touch the canoe while in storeage AND there should be good air circulation around the canoes.

IF I had a canoe out like yours, I would have it upside down on horses and a frame of some type over it to support a tarp, with enough slope to shed snow.

I have stored the fishing boats like this for years, works great.

Dan

 

[john hupfield]

If I put a roof on them I would use plywood and have to put up with Bat droppings. Averaging 12 ft of snow a year most tarp systems fail, so I just shovel them off whilst standing on snowshoes.
The major problems for me are snow load and UV. The tarp helps for both and I don't feel bad when I throw it away.
John

 

[Rollin Thurlow]

Maybe it was a case not of the vinyl bag leaking but of moisture being trapped in the closed bag. When it got colder the moist vapor would condense and then freeze to the canoe and bag both.

 

[Bob Holtzman]

Grounds for a lawsuit?

 

[john hupfield]

Rollin, I think you are right. The vinyl can't breath. Might as well shrink wrap it.
Lawsuits? If your canoe is worth more than the Lawyer, maybe.
More like grounds for refinishing.
John

 

[Bob Holtzman]

Rollin, I think you are right. The vinyl can't breath. Might as well shrink wrap it.
Lawsuits? If your canoe is worth more than the Lawyer, maybe.
More like grounds for refinishing.
John

Small claims court. No lawyer needed. Maybe just the prospect of court might get some "consideration" from the manufacturer.

 

[Denis M. Kallery]

It would be interesting to do an experiment replicating the conditions but using an oil based paint instead of the latex based. Perhaps the trapped moisture softened the latex paint enough for it to stick to the tarp as it dried. Inquiring minds want to know!
Denis