Mooring Cover while in wet slip

[dalcini]

I'll be wet slipping at a marina this summer with access to only one side of the boat from my well. I'm concerned about the difficulty of putting on the mooring cover from on the boat (ratchets and velcro flaps are not easily accessible while on the boat.)
I've leveraged my kindergarten art degree to deftly illustrate the point below. Note: I'm slightly fatter in real life.

Anyone wet-slippers out there with a good technique for in-water cover removal/application?

 

[drewkaree]

Cc: @WiskyDan

I think he's gleaned a few tips from the Flying Wallenda's to accomplish this

 

[WiskyDan]

I bought my current boat towards the end of season in 2023 and only had the Yamaha mooring cover (had a two piece snap-on bow/stern cover made at the beginning of the following season) and the couple of times that I tried to put the Yamaha mooring cover on while the boat was in the water was a complete disaster. Hard to get to the whole thing rolled out and into place, hard to get the seams around the tower lined up, hard to get to the ratchets - it sucked. Maybe a younger person would have been OK as I'm old and fat but I think it would become very old very fast if you had to do it for an entire season.

 

[anmut]

When we're up north over the weekends, I "wet slip" my boat at the dock and put the cover on every night. Here's my method for my 21' boat:

Before you think about putting the cover on, you have to make sure you take it off correctly:

1. Very important - BEFORE you take off the cover, only loosen the ratchet on the dock-side of the boat. Do this while the boat is on the trailer so you can play around with the two ratchets easily. Goal is to be able to loosen the cover with just one ratchet. As you're taking up slack on non-dock side, you can slide the entire strap system inside the cover to gain the space you'll need on the dock-side ratchet - again, all easily done with boat on the trailer.
2. Also very important - as you take the cover off, roll and tuck it from the stern. Grab the transom portion of the cover and roll it into itself. As you get to the outer edges, flap them into the roll. Continue to roll until you get to the windshield. At this point, you can heave the cover over the windshield and into the bow, open the window, and continue to roll it up. Now you have a nice big "hot dog" of a cover that is ready to be rolled back on easily.

When you go to cover in your wet slip:

1. Loosely tie boat to dock with stern and bow cleats.
2. Roll cover on, front to back, make sure the bow portion of the cover hooks on the "nose" of the boat
3. Flap out the sides as you're closing the window
4. When you get to the tower velcro, do non-dock side velcro first and clip in your ratchet strap buckle
5. As you step back on the transom seating area, you can "flap" the entire cover to ensure the cover vents don't hang up on the window post
6. Now attach the non-dock side transom clip

At this point you'll have a loosely fitted cover that's 100% attached to the non-dock side and you haven't stepped into the water! Now...

1. Flap the cover over the cleat areas on the dock side, and (because you smartly kept your cleat lines loose), you can unhook them and feed them through the cover's cleat holes
2. Now finish your tower strap buckle and velcro
3. Now clip in your dock side transom clip - this can be tricky, I usually have to sit on the dock to get to it
4. Lastly, ratchet your cover tight!

Bonus points:
- Make sure you spray your ratchets with YamaLube (or anything really) to keep them silky smooth
- Don't forget to zip up the cleat access holes in the cover before trailering!
- Tuck your cover transom clip excess strap up under the cover to keep as much of it out of the water as possible

Things to consider when wet slipping:
- If you don't have access to charging while the boat is stored, consider getting a solar charging system. Nothing ruins a day on the lake by getting to the boat and getting errors because your batteries are low
- Many different thoughts on what long-term wet slipping does to the gel coats on these boats - proceed with caution

 

[TommyMcK]

I don’t wet slip, but I do keep the boat on a lift without access to the starboard side of the boat from the exterior. To set expectations, it’s typically a 5 minute process that will generate a curse or two. I start from the bow. You need the center window closed with the cover draped over it when you do this, and will need to crawl under the window as you work yourself rearward. I work rearward on both sides up until the point that the cover is over the windshield and with the cleat covers over the midship cleats. Make sure the poles are pre positioned before you start. Once I get past mid cleat, I work my way back on the starboard side. The side Velcro with strap area requires me to reach around the back of the tower, hanging somewhat off the side of the boat. It’s awkward but doable. Then I work my way around the stern and jump off the boat when I get near the port stern. It’s quick work finishing the port side from the pier.

Two things that will get you. First, all bets are off with a stiff breeze. That 5 minutes can turn into a half hour easily. Since my boat is off a pier in my backyard, I just wait for calmer conditions to cover the boat. The second thing is that you will surely at some point realize that you forgot to turn the batteries off, left your keys, or find some other reason that you need to get back into the boat. In that case, you can unpeel the stern corner and do a Houdini to slide yourself back in without too much hassle.

 

[biffdotorg]

The irony of Yamaha calling this a mooring cover and not a trailering cover. As it's way more appropriate as a trailering cover.

I too usually only loosen one ratchet even when on the trailer. But I use the two piece snap on covers while on my lift. Just to keep the birds and bugs out.

 

[Bluewater272]

It's super simple, leave the tension on the ratchet set on the water side. As you get off the boat, you can hook the back of the cover around to the far side and clip it into the tie down, and then once back on the dock, do the same at the other corner and then ratchet tight. Pay attention to anmut's steps, in particular about leaving your dock lines loose until its covered.

One other suggestion since you have a tower, grab yourself a pair of these and ditch the poles. Makes it far easier to put the cover on in the slip, and much less hassle overall; frankly I don't know why anyone with a tower would ever put up with the poles again, easily the best hundred bucks I ever spent on that boat.

 

[2kwik4u]

I've done this on vacation a few times. Granted my 190 is a little smaller than your 242, it's the same closure system.

Get the cover mostly on.
Velcro the "far side" over the tower, buckle it togethor, and set the ratchet strap to about "normal" number of wraps on it.
Stand on swim platform and slip cover over the "far side" lower rub rail.
Fasten the security strap to the tie down eye if you're feeling well balanced and froggy
Step off swim platform on near side to dock.
pull rest of cover over and attach buckle and velcro
slip cover over back of swim platform and attach security strap
Ratchet strap tightly down
Go have a sit to relax from the dizzying amount of bending over you had to do to get this done. Especially if you're a heavier fella like me.

It kinda sucks to do, but works well. Had mine sit out in a several rain storms and remain mostly dry with the cover on, and the poles setup.

Here's some results.

Surviving a rainstorm on Douglas Lake, TN in 2019


Here's one with St. Augustine in the background in 2024

 

[WiskyDan]

The irony of Yamaha calling this a mooring cover and not a trailering cover. As it's way more appropriate as a trailering cover.

I too usually only loosen one ratchet even when on the trailer. But I use the two piece snap on covers while on my lift. Just to keep the birds and bugs out.

This. I only use my Yamaha mooring cover to/during/from storage each season due to the extra protection it provides that the snap-on covers don't.

Great answers by those that have done this more often than I have - having a plan/system is half the battle.

 

[jthackman]

This. I only use my Yamaha mooring cover to/during/from storage each season due to the extra protection it provides that the snap-on covers don't.

Great answers by those that have done this more often than I have - having a plan/system is half the battle.

any pics of your snap-in covers? they are not oem?

 

[Ribs77]

Lots of great answers here, but I wanted to chime in that I'm usually not able to buckle both sides of the cover when wet slipped - but it doesn't seem to matter. I buckle the water side, but it's generally impossible for me to get the dock side tight enough to buckle. It gets worse later in the season when the water level is 3 feet lower and I'm dangling headfirst off the edge trying to buckle the dockside stern clip

With careful velcroing, I can get it tight enough that water doesn't pool on the cover IF I'm using the poles.

 

[biffdotorg]

Lots of great answers here, but I wanted to chime in that I'm usually not able to buckle both sides of the cover when wet slipped - but it doesn't seem to matter.

This is exactly the point, you are mooring, or on a lift, your only fighting the wind. Not 65-70mph trailering winds. Once it's pulled tight on one side, it's not going anywhere.

any pics of your snap-in covers? they are not oem?

Yes, they are OEM and am not sure if they still offer them for current models. But can be made by any tarp/cover shop. As even the OEM snap on covers require you to install snaps to utilize. Some complain of the hot snaps, but we have never had a complaint if installed correctly, they are over the edge and never come in contact with anyone.

Sorry, this is one of the only photos I have of it on the lift with covers on. But you can see the bow cover peeking out, it literally just covers the interior and seats on the swimdeck, the important stuff

 

[dalcini]

Thanks for all the detailed replies everyone!

 

[WiskyDan]

any pics of your snap-in covers? they are not oem?

They are not OEM - a local shop made them for me.

I have some decent photos - I’ll post them as soon as I can.

 

[buko887]

Very doable with some practice. Take the cover off by pulling in sides as you work from stern to bow and roll it up, makes it very easy to bring to bow and unroll as you go towards the stern. As everyone else said, leave the water side ratchet ratcheted and work from the dock side. Then just work your way off the boat to the stern dockside. It takes practice but after a few times its not bad at all and keeps the boat much drier compared to the bow and and stern snap in cover.