Noob mooring cover questions

[20mm]

Can't believe the season is almost over. Time seems to fly when you are looking forward to boating every weekend. This is going to be a long winter for me knowing that I can't use the boat for several months. My boat came with a cobalt mooring cover (or whatever co makes them for Cobalt). Curious if it's possible / recommended to install the mooring cover over the cockpit and bow covers. Prior owner for many years stored the boat in a heated garage in the winter and that's one of the reasons why it's in the shape it's in being an 18yr old boat - since I'm leaving it outside want to make sure I'm doing everything right to keep it in the same condition. Also any tips / procedures on covering / using the mooring cover for the winter for the first time would be helpful. The boat will be on my lift at my slip for the winter at Lake of the Ozarks. I did a search and did not find much on the forum. Probably way overthinking it but don't want to miss anything.
Thanks in advance for any help / insight you can share.

[jma2@fuse.net]

"My boat came with a cobalt mooring cover (or whatever co makes them for Cobalt). Curious if it's possible / recommended to install the mooring cover over the cockpit and bow covers."

Your mooring cover is designed to breath for long term storage. Do not use it with your cockpit and bow cover. You will trap moisture in your boat causing mildew and other molds to grow.

[Norris_Boating]

Ditto above, I leave it out all winter and just use the mooring cover. looks good in the spring when I uncover it.
When putting it on, I start at the stern and work my way to the bow, but is on a lift at the dock, I would probably go the other way if it is on a trailer.

[Krob1114]

We're in a similar situation with slip and covered marina.
We use mooring cover every time we leave the boat, except when we're coming back the next morning.
I use the Arm & Hammer baking soda refridgerator packs in all compartments when leaving for last time each season.
You might also try DampRid.
When we opened our boat in spring, didn't need to do anything.

[ajcampen]

Have a winter cover made in material called top gun or aqualon

[20mm]

Thanks for the tips guys. Also called the dealer and he had a few suggestions too. The cover that came with the boat goes down the sides pretty far and covers the back end. We should have great weather this weekend and looking forward to getting it out after not being able to get the boat out for the last couple of weeks. Now if I can figure out how to get rid of all these damn spiders.....Sprayed around the dock, parts of the lift. A buddy suggested spraying the bow and cockpit covers which I did not do. Roof is too high and don't want all that stuff landing on the boat anyway. Put dryer sheets in the boat and in gaps of the cover around the arch and bimini top holes to try and keep them out. Wife and I had to get brooms out to sweep off all the webs and bugs....Any suggestions on the spider front? Had no idea these things crap so much and such a PITA to get it off the vinyl.

[Big Block Power]

Thanks for the tips guys. Also called the dealer and he had a few suggestions too. The cover that came with the boat goes down the sides pretty far and covers the back end. We should have great weather this weekend and looking forward to getting it out after not being able to get the boat out for the last couple of weeks. Now if I can figure out how to get rid of all these damn spiders.....Sprayed around the dock, parts of the lift. A buddy suggested spraying the bow and cockpit covers which I did not do. Roof is too high and don't want all that stuff landing on the boat anyway. Put dryer sheets in the boat and in gaps of the cover around the arch and bimini top holes to try and keep them out. Wife and I had to get brooms out to sweep off all the webs and bugs....Any suggestions on the spider front? Had no idea these things crap so much and such a PITA to get it off the vinyl.

Do not spray anything on your boat or cover. Chemicals can eat away at them.
So buy this and spray it around the boat. My sil uses it everywhere now around the house after she found out how well it worked on the dock from a neighbor boat. She couldn't figure out why his didn't have any spiders and hers was covered. Bam gone. Also to clean spider poop use BioKleen Amazing cleaner then use viynl conditioner after that. Works great.

https://www.acehardware.com/departments ... lsrc=aw.ds

[AsLan7]

.
Man I’m a huge fan of this product for boat spiders. A guy who has a covered dock told me about it. I used it and can’t say enough good things about it.

Just drop a tablet into a spray bottle.
Sprayed the outside of our boat with no adverse affects and spiders have been gone for over a month.

.

[Big Block Power]

Look at that we can even solve spider issues
A7 you sprayed it right on the hull?

[AsLan7]

Look at that we can even solve spider issues
A7 you sprayed it right on the hull?

I did. It leaves a slight powdery residue that rinses off. I was a little hesitant but used it before buffing the boat out just in case. It didn’t stain at all.

[20mm]

Look at that we can even solve spider issues
A7 you sprayed it right on the hull?

Appreciate the feedback guys. Glad I did not spray the covers or any part of the boat, as BB pointed out was afraid it would not be good for either. I will report back after the weekend once I see if there was any difference after dousing the dock and lift with insecticide last weekend. Again thanks for the suggestions / recommendations.

[psoundboater]

Jumping onto this as my question is related. I have the Cobalt Mooring cover for my CS23. It has holes (4) for the bimini frame and two fairly large vents that end up just aft of the windshield. I have tie wrapped the bimini holes to keep out mice but not sure what to do about the vents. As was noted above, I do not want to block them as the boat needs to breathe. But a mouse could easily get into the boat through one of these vents. This is my first winter with the brand new boat so hoping someone else has figured this out. I plan to put some dryer sheets in the boat (apparently mice do not like the smell?) and was thinking I might put some screen material or something like that over the vents themselves to still allow ventilation but not critter penetration!

My boat will be stored at the Cobalt dealer in my area in covered but unheated storage (I am north of Toronto, Canada - it gets pretty cold up here!). So I do not need to worry about snow load on the cover. My main concern is mice! Any advice?

[Big Block Power]

I would stuff the vents with dryer sheets too.

[psoundboater]

Thanks, BBP. That is another option I was thinking about. Was hoping to figure out a more solid physical barrier approach. I figure I just have to discourage the little devils enough to try another boat. My marina stores over 1200 boats for the winter!

[AsLan7]

Jumping onto this as my question is related. I have the Cobalt Mooring cover for my CS23. It has holes (4) for the bimini frame and two fairly large vents that end up just aft of the windshield. I have tie wrapped the bimini holes to keep out mice but not sure what to do about the vents. As was noted above, I do not want to block them as the boat needs to breathe. But a mouse could easily get into the boat through one of these vents. This is my first winter with the brand new boat so hoping someone else has figured this out. I plan to put some dryer sheets in the boat (apparently mice do not like the smell?) and was thinking I might put some screen material or something like that over the vents themselves to still allow ventilation but not critter penetration!

My boat will be stored at the Cobalt dealer in my area in covered but unheated storage (I am north of Toronto, Canada - it gets pretty cold up here!). So I do not need to worry about snow load on the cover. My main concern is mice! Any advice?

.
Wife’s Panty hose work great to block holes from mice entering (on the boat ) coupled with those dryer sheets.