Overnighting without Camper Top
 

This will be my first summer without a camper top on my boat. I will probably put my cockpit cover on at night to at least keep the boat dry. What do you guys do?

That's all I usually ever use even on my cruiser. The full camper top is just more trouble than its worth for just one night. Getting in and out is a little more challenging but that doesn't bother me.

I overnight with one too. No biggie, snap down the cockpit cover and leave undone to climb in and out. Easy.

Have a zipper sewn into the cover. This way its fully covered and you can get out.

Same here, zippered access sewn into the tonneau cover...although I still use my bimini and enclosures quite a lot.

http://33outlaw.zenfolio.com/img/s11...38332269-3.jpg

I have done it with and without the top on. If its a dry night no big deal but if you get some dew man does it make a mess. The bugs are the worst part.

x3 on the zipper. Makes retrieving anything left in the boat much easier.

i kep the cockpit cover on the boat, so I put that one and slid on my belly across the sun pad. I have left it undocvered on a dry night, but that pretty rare. the dew makes it easy to wipe down and have a clean boat in the morning though.

That's what I do just cockpit cover , But beware !! Last summer we spent a couple of nights at a marina ,
It was a lovely evening so I only did the cover half up ,about a hour later we were sitting in a in a bar when the heavens opened up thunder lightning the lot , I am now kicking myself for not doing the cover all the way up . Returning to the boat a few hours later to my surprise the guy in the cruiser next to me had seen the cover half of and jump on board and popped all the studs down for me. .
I undone the last few on the corner of the sunpad crawled in leavening the studs undone .
At about 5 am I need to go but I couldn't get out . The guy in the cruiser had heard the corner of the cover flapping about and thought it had come undone so he got up in the middle of the night and popped it back down again , the only way I could undo the studs was to put my hand between two studs and make a fist and they popped open . We laughted about it later .

Can any canvas shop put a zipper in my current cover

+10000000. I tryed it once with out putting on my camper top. The next morning i payed for it!!!! Took 2 hours that morning cleaning, and still finding dead mayflies in the cock pit. Those buggers were every where! They were about a 1/2" thick on the swim deck by the transom light. Put cover on at min.

Shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure they stitch a flap in that covers the zipper. It keeps the water out. You can see the flap in ICDEDPPL's pic. I have a zipper on both sides, never know what side the dock is on or if you pull in or back in

Good Lord. Did that once last year after a few too many at the bar. Woke up to find a bug holocost everywhere. Hours of cleaning with a raging hangover is not fun. Snap up the top every time now. :angry-smiley-038:

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Just put the cockpit cover on the boat, and drop back down into the cabin via the bow hatch.

Why did it take 13 posts for this to come out?

I realize some may have a little too much girth to fit or hatch may not be large enough?
My method of choice most of the time mainly because I did not think ahead and have a zipper put in when I had the cover made. Seems like two zippers or a single in the rear may be best since I never know which side I might be docking on depending on a double wide slip or which side I docked with a straight dock.

I admit there are a couple downsides to the hatch - if heavy dew/recent rain bow may be slippery (increased by state returning from bar) and dirty foot prints to wipe in the morning (hopefully I awake before the dirty foot prints dry)
If it IS raining, bed can get wet :(

Sitting here, boat may be paying a visit to the canvas shop this spring for a zipper.....

When you find a shop that does it let me know so I can get some added.

We are having one added to our cockpit cover. Appearance Products said no problem.

That's what I have done both sides works great!

Yup, been doing that for many years.