by Raymond A. Palmer
Why pay more for dry storage during winter months when for little money you can make your own portable wet-storage system?
Each year when winter winds begin to blow and temperature falls, wet-storage advocates gain new adherents. Formerly, the last week of October and the first days of November were busy with cruisers being hauled from the water and rolled onto storage platforms. The violent movement of a boat on a cradle as it’s pulled from the water and racked onto the storage skids causes more damage than an entire season of cruising! Hulls suffer from drying out and seams may need recaulking. Winter covers must be put in place to protect from snow and ice. This means continual checking, adjustment and retying of tarpaulin all winter long. Add to this the ever-present possibility of theft or vandalism and you wonder whether a boat is worth having at all! Four years ago we decided to join the wet-storage gang. We had a good floating dock with an all-weather roof which covered the boat and the surrounding walk. There was plenty of electric power dockside to heat the craft when winter work was needed. We did tie a thin sheet of plastic over our hard top to keep it clean and protect the paint. We did not remove the batteries since they could easily be checked and recharged aboard. Besides, battery power was needed to run the automatic bilge pump protecting us if we took on any water during the winter. Perhaps, the advantage that appealed most was the privilege of going aboard without having to set up ladders and untie covers. Our next step was to acquire a bubbler. We could purchase the complete package with all the controls or we could assemble our own. We chose the latter but didn’t start from scratch since some of our neighbors had experimented with their own designs. We used their experience and what we had read about winter stortge and began our own project.
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