60 More Days

[Gerry Zagorski]

And it's time to start washing, waxing, painting and fixing for an early April boat launch... Feb and March always seem to be the longest 60 days of the year though, especially after football ends.

Any of you planning on major projects or doing any upgrades this year on your boats??

I'm thinking of adding a heater to the boat in the helm area. A bus heater would be nice but seems like a lot of work and expense for just occational use. Thinking of picking up one of those portable propane Buddy Heaters. Anyone have any experince with them??

[Bass_Appeal]

if it werent for this damn super cold , and lingering snow ....i would be taking the cover off and waxing , shining , and tying right now ! lol i wanna punch al gore in the nuts ...and poop on his face while hes down !

[Bass_Appeal]

the only project ill have is to find a job to pay for fuel and bait! lol

[bottomline]

I use a small camping Coleman catalytic heater. Its a little smaller the the Buddy and just screws on top of a propane bottle. But it works fine for colder weather fishing.

I keep it inside the helm area which is closed in with the drop curtain. When we get cold, simply go in for a few minutes. Also helps to defrost the windshield on occasion.

I was in Minnesota last week and did some ice fishing. It was -15, but inside the ice house with a buddy heater saved me from freezing. And no we did not catch anything dispite more equipment & bait than i thought reasonable for any fishing adventure.

johnny

[Gerry Zagorski]

Thanks Bottom... Was kind of leaning towards the Buddy Heater because of 2 saftey features. If it happens to tip over it automatically shuts down and it has an oxegen sensor so it will shut off when oxegen gets too depleted.

[PAFireGuy]

Have a new T top in the garage in 6 boxes waiting on the temperature to get above 50 so I can assemble and install.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by PAFireGuy

Have a new T top in the garage in 6 boxes waiting on the temperature to get above 50 so I can assemble and install.

That sounds like a fun project and a nice upgrade.. Hard or canvas top?

[PAFireGuy]

I went with the canvas, Sunbrella material. I've had a Bimini for years. I thought I give this a shot with a few launchers and electronics box to add a little more storage.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Sunbrella is a great choice. A good buddy of mine has a black sunbrella top on his that is 10 years old and looks new. The Bolsters on our boat are also black sumbrealla, the boat is a 2000 and everyone comments that they look new.

A few things you need to watch out for....

1) If you cover your top with a poly tarp for the winter and the poly tarp rubs on it from the wind it will wear a hole in it... Best to take the top off completely if you plan on using a tarp and just rest the tarp directly on the support ribs.

2) You need to treat it once and a while for it to keep it's water repellant qualities especially when it's horizontal, like on tops. http://www.sunbrella.com/en_us/pdf/c...ops-covers.pdf

Good luck with you project PA

[PAFireGuy]

That's good to know. Thanks for the information Gerry.