LaurencetheAdventurer
Well-Known Member
What size did you order? Your Benny looks to be a 25'?
Blue Sky cover - has anyone tried one?
- Thread starter Kim in Central FL
- Start date
Mine is only a 22ft but still ordered an XL and it fits good.
Vikingstaff
Moderator
This pretty much sums up how we put on our cover 90% of the time in season.
JAMS
Well-Known Member
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Got mine yesterday. LL21. They advises a medium would fit which it does. seems to work as advertised, fit well, light weight and easy to put on. I have mine to mainly keep the bird and spider crap off it.
My problem isn’t with the clips but the poles.
Jack M
Moderator
What problem are you having with the poles?
Just the time and effort it takes to put them in. I used to crawl under to put them in but now I put the canvas on from the bow and add the poles as I move backwards. I just do a couple of clips from inside the boat and move to the dock. I have a cable lift so generally clip the rest of them at shoulder height.
Jack M
Moderator
That's the same problem we all have .
Maybe I am missing something. Why even install the poles if winds are low and the intent is just a quick protection from spiders, birds, etc.? The Blue Ski cover doesn’t use poles and is not waterproof, correct. Just toss on the normal cover, snap every 3rd or 4th clip, and call it a night.
Too much wind in the afternoon here to have the regular cover flopping around. The Blue Sky is stretched tight so that eliminates the problem. Still working on how to keep the sides tight though.
My new cover will not tighten properly without the poles. Without the poles some of my clips are too loose to even stay in place.
I have one midship loop down by the rub rail that I can attach the center to with the straps. Overall, I'm moderately impressed with this thing, not over the moon impressed. XL was the right size for me although it is super stretchy..... but with the configuration of my solid tower and a few other minor issues it covers about 90% of it. Doesn't cover the rear seats real well...The real question is how it will stay in place with at least a light breeze say 15 miles an hour or less. If it's going to storm the main cover is going to go back on guaranteed.
I may report back at the end of the summer and see if it's two thumbs up or not. It does look like you can get it on and off in say five minutes which is a real win if it'll hang in there on reasonably calm days.
Has anybody come up with any other easy ways to use the straps when there's no loop to hook them to in other places along the pontoon line?
I got mine in over the weekend…jury is still out but the straps they ship with it are ridiculous and I don’t even bother using them. I just hook the attached loop at each corner cleat then run a small bungee in the center on each side…easy peasy. I call it my good weather cover….if I know it’s not going to rain I put this cover on to protect from the sun. If rain is in the forecast the full mooring cover goes on.
Dan
Dan
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Have a medium on 24ssrx (19.5ft playpen) and fits well. Installed snaps on cover side tabs to clip in rail J channel. Used sand bag for front and back middle strap to keep tight to gates. Had cover on all season in wet slip with no issues. Boat stayed clean and dried quickly when got wet.
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I ended up getting some 6 inch bungee cord to go in the mid loops. Between the main center loops. They hook right onto the slot in the J channel. I can have this thing on and off in 5 minutes. I can't even think about pulling out the mooring color and messing with that heavy beast plus poles in 5 minutes. This thing does 85% of what I want unless there's a huge storm coming. If it's just a quick shower or it's sunny for two weeks straight, it's the best thing out there. And I was a skeptic at first......
Does it keep the rain out or just the dust and dirt while protecting against sun damage?
It's 95% just a dust and dirt cover. If there's just a light passing shower and it'll be over in 15 minutes. I leave it on and we just motor on. If it is going to rain, like for the afternoon or the day, you really need to put the mooring cover on it with poles to get the water to shed off of it. This thing will let a heavy downpour right through along with the dirt that is accumulated on top of the cover.
Again, its beauty is easy on and off. Along with sun protection when you have two weeks straight of no rain and if you want to go out at night, you can be ready to go in 5 minutes. Before we had this, we used to look at each other and say, do we really want to take that big cover off and put it back on? Most of the time the answer was no, and then we really didn't use the boat as much as we should have.
Again, its beauty is easy on and off. Along with sun protection when you have two weeks straight of no rain and if you want to go out at night, you can be ready to go in 5 minutes. Before we had this, we used to look at each other and say, do we really want to take that big cover off and put it back on? Most of the time the answer was no, and then we really didn't use the boat as much as we should have.
I’ve had good luck with mine. I have a covered dock which gets some rain under it if the wind is blowing hard enough but mostly the cover is there to keep bird and spider droppings out of the boat. It’s not unusual at this time of year for us to get 30+ MPH wind gusts and there hasn’t been any problem with that. I keep the cover on with clips I got from a member of one of the Facebook Bennington forums. He posted 3D Printer files online to make them and since I don’t have a 3D printer, he graciously made me a set. The clips snap into the rails just like the clips on the factory cover and I just leave them installed in the rails. I loop the straps over the front cleats, pull the cover the length of the boat and attach the straps to the back cleats. After that, I just walk around the boat slipping the remaining straps into the slots in the clips. Five minutes tops and I’m done. No poles, no messing around. The ease of taking to cover off and putting it back on has made it much easier to take our boat out.
