BOAT SHRINK WRAP PRO

If you plan to trailer your boat while it’s wrapped, you need a “bullet wrap”.Here are a few other shrink-wrapping details, to keep in mind: But if your boat is old or inexpensive and your budget is tight, default back to that old tarp-and be ready to monitor and maintain it until spring.

BOAT SHRINK WRAP PRO

The bottom line? If your boat represents a large investment and you want to protect it, a good shrink wrap job done by a real pro is the hands-down best way to safeguard your boat through the winter. You like to go boating even when there's ice at the ramp? Then heat shrink wrap probably isn't what you need. For 99 percent of us this isn't a problem, but for those who are willing to break ice for a winter fishing trip or to enjoy cold-water activities like recreational oyster tonging, shrink wrap will prove frustrating when the opportunity to get out on the water arises. There's one other potential down-side to using heat shrink wrap on a boat: once wrapped, there’s no way you can use it. So for the vast majority of the boat owners out there, using heat shrink wrap simply isn't a DIY project. And remember, your first learning experience will be on one of your most prized possessions. If the installer is inexperienced he might end up scorching the boat, or worse-and many part-time installers don’t even have the insurance needed to cover that type of damage.” What about those do-it-yourself kits? Unless you happen to have a propane-fired heat gun sitting around-a starter model used for shrink wrap costs around $700-this isn’t as economical as you’d think. And when you have a 3,500-degree heat gun in your hand, you’d better know what you’re doing. “But there are a lot of outfits out there that only shrink wrap a couple months out of the year, when boats need to be winterized. “We shrink wrap 12 months out of the year because we're mobile, and we do many projects other than boats,” Hoover said. “You have to ask yourself,” Hoover said, “what’s your boat worth to you?” Even if you spring for shrink-wrapping, you have to remember that you get what you pay for. A tarp and some rope, on the other hand, can be bought for peanuts. Even a small boat can cost several hundred dollars to shrink wrap, and protecting a large boat could cost you a lot more. Should You Shrink Wrap Your Boat? So, what’s the down-side to shrink wrap? The expense. That seal not only keeps the weather out of your boat, it also prevents the stretching and tearing tarps commonly display after a few months in the elements. Shrink wrap is a polyethylene which has UV inhibitors, and is formulated to shrink when heated to create a seal which is much tighter than the one you or I can make with a tarp and ropes.

Is your boat ready for winter? The boats with shrink wrap are better protected than the rest.

Boat shrink wrap