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New Cratch cover


dm6045

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Hello whilst Mr C is being painted we are looking into having a new cratch cover fitted as ours is leaking like a sieve and the water ends up running through the pipes from the cratch back to the engine bay so its not ideal.

But my question is that we have the typical Weltonfield narrow cratch board (that doesnt extend over the gunnels) and ive noticed that most weltonfields have a cover that matches that profile ie. not covering the gunnels, at some point there has been an new cover made in the more common manner of extending it over the side but because of the board it just sags and generally looks sad ive seen two others like it also and one was a brand new cover and neither has looked great. Has anyone with experience of the weltonfield Cratch got a reason to have another 'normal' one made rather than one that matches the board that it would have had originally ill put a couple of pictures to show what i mean.

this is what we have now.

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and this is what most weltonfields have or were built with

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i like the idea of going with second style because it will mean that the cover doesnt need to be rolled up to get onto the bow for the water tank. but just wondered if anyone with any experience of them has any advice, as i have spoken to one cover maker and they said it would be a bad idea as you would get alot of rain come in from underneath and they said that all covers should cover the gunnels.

 

sorry for being so rambling all i can say is i'm tired and confuse myself lol!

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The lower photo indicates that there must be some sort of upstand around the inside of the gunwales that the cover is clipped to. This means water can not leak under the cover much like when GRP tops were correctly fitted to steel hulls.

If you do not have such an upstand or you think  fitting one may be a trip hazard then you would need to cover the gunwales and even then if the cover is not clipped to them (as per my Weltonfield cover) rain will still blow and leak in when the cover gets blown inside the well deck.

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1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

The lower photo indicates that there must be some sort of upstand around the inside of the gunwales that the cover is clipped to. This means water can not leak under the cover much like when GRP tops were correctly fitted to steel hulls.

If you do not have such an upstand or you think  fitting one may be a trip hazard then you would need to cover the gunwales and even then if the cover is not clipped to them (as per my Weltonfield cover) rain will still blow and leak in when the cover gets blown inside the well deck.

thankyou, yes we do have the upstand and it still has the holes in it from the original cover fixings, our current cover blows inside the well deck if not poppered to the hull anyway so that wouldn't be any different. as i said earlier i like the fact that the weltonfield style cover will make it possible to access the bow and watertank easier from the bank as we have quite a long well deck and the curve of the bow starts at the cabin so forward of the cratch board is quite a bit further out from the bank than most other boats we see (plus i only have short legs! hahaha) so it may help matters. i've just spoken to several boaters and cover makers who seem to think they are a bad idea but i wondered what anybody who has actually lived with one thought as i get the feeling from the cover makers that they think its a bad idea because its not the 'standard' way its done.

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41 minutes ago, Ray T said:

Incidentley has your boat a Reeves hull?

Yep Reeves hull - Weltonfield fit out.

Yeah your cover is similar to what we have now, really i think im swaying more towards the standard weltonfield cover where it sits inside the gunnels like the second picture i put up. our well deck looks quite abit longer than yours i think ours is about 6 foot so combine that with the narrow board and it ends up with a saggy cover over the gunnels and generally looks abit sad (if a cover could express emotion that is lol :unsure:)

I see you have a filler fitting on the bow we dont have that we just have to open the hatch and have you got the pipe on the right that goes down into the well deck locker for anchor chain? ours is currently bunged up with a brass bath plug need to find a slightly more elegant solution than that whilst its being painted.

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The anchor tube on our boat was originally plugged with a plastic temporary petrol tank type plug. I've replaced it with a pumpout brass fitting which I have sealed the screw cap with Locktite as I don't want any mistakes and water pumped into the boat!

I had the water filler cap put in when we tried a bag inside the water compartment. The yard which fitted the bag installed an inappropriate caravan one which eventually split, but that is another story.

Our boat is a 45 footer BTW.

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Edited by Ray T
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