Why you should shrink wrap your boat

Now that we are into September and the kids are back in school, you may be thinking about the sad day that your boat goes away for the winter. Around here, summer is too short but the real problem is that winter is too long. If you are storing your boat outside, you may have already learned first-hand that buying a large blue plastic rip-stop tarp from Canadian Tire or Home Hardware is no way to treat your prized possession. Mainly because winter is just too long and harsh.

The large blue tarp may work just fine for while, but they will seldom protect your boat for the whole winter without several adjustments and the occasional start-from-scratch redo. When you have your boat professionally shrink wrapped, there will be no leaks, no snow build-up and no heavy blocks of ice to fight your very existence. You can usually forget about your boat until Spring.

This boat is going into its second winter with the same wrap. It is a little dusty, but no worse for the wear.

Shrink wrap plastic is a UV resistant polyethylene that shrinks when heated. When properly installed, the wrap is tight like a drum and snow and ice just slides off. It is nearly impossible to tighten a common tarp with just rope and when the wind comes up, the rope will be no match for the tug on that large tarp. We have been shrink wrapping boats now for 30 years and we have it down to a science. We have learned that a proper roof frame made from lumber is more reliable than one made from rope. We build in proper ventilation and we always include a dehumidifier as your boat will remain covered well into the Spring before it finally hits the water again.

The downside of shrink wrap is that once your boat is wrapped, you cannot access again until the wrap is removed. If you need to get inside your boat while it is still wrapped, we can install a zipper access door. The wrap cannot be reused once it is removed, but the plastic is recycleable.

Call or email us today, we also offer dry indoor storage and outdoor storage with shrink wrap of course.