tips and tricks
by George Bollenbacher
Every autumn as I prepare Greyhound, my Alacrity 19, for her winter nap, I struggle with the tarp I cover her with. I have been draping it over the mast, which sits on top of the coachhouse roof and serves as a ridge pole. The problem with that arrangement is that it never gets the tarp high enough, or tight enough, so all winter ice and water collect in the tarp, in the cockpit, and sometimes in the bilge. That leaves me the messy job of clearing the ice and water several times a winter and pumping out the bilge before I can move the boat in the spring.
This past year I read an article in Good Old Boat about building a frame out of PVC pipe, and it looked like that might be my answer. The frame in the article was designed to cover an entire boat, and one that was about double the size of Greyhound, so I undertook to downsize the whole project, and came up with a collapsible frame for the cockpit at a cost of about $30.00.
I used 1-inch PVC pipe, because it was cheap and strong enough to carry the weight. I got two 12-foot lengths at my local Home Depot for about $15.00. I also bought 4-45o elbows, 2-90o elbows with side outlets (these may be hard to find locally, but they are available on the internet at http://pvcfittings.com/), and 4 T-fittings, all for about $15.00. I cut the pipe to fit on a slide miter saw with fine teeth, but a tubing cutter will also work.
I measured the length and width of the cockpit, and figured out how high I wanted the legs to be so that they cleared the cockpit coaming. Then I figured out how long to make the diagonal braces by referring to our old high school geometry friend Pythagoras. You square the width, divide the number by two, and take the square root. Voila! Just make sure when cutting the diagonals to leave room for the T-fittings.
An evening of cutting and fitting together was all it took. I screwed the permanent joints together to give the frame more rigidity. Here is how it looks disassembled:
You can see the T-fittings and the 90o elbows that are ready to receive the supports, which are lying alongside.
Here is how it looks assembled and standing in the cockpit:
It is tall enough the keep the tarp off the mast, reducing strain on it, and allowing water and snow to run off.
Here is how it looks with the tarp installed. Plenty of protection at a reasonable price!
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