Back to the main site

Getting a custom enclosure made

That's my cue! I'm coming from the big cruiser crowd.

Klear-To-Sea is the product I used. I'll do a longer post on how to care for Eisenglass in just a bit. It's a thing and you don't want to make a mistake. Mistakes are permanent and expensive.
 
Ok...a couple of non-negotiables when caring for eisenglass.

1. Never roll it on itself.

         if you are going to store it rolled up, roll it into a cotton bedsheet.

2. It's best to store it flat and stack them.

         but don't let 2 sections touch directly - they stick together.

         put sheets in between each panel.

3. Water is your friend when caring for eisenglass - use lots of it directly from the hose - not from a bucket.

4. Anything with ammonia in it will ruin your eisenglass in one quick pass. This includes Windex and most glass cleaners. Very bad.

5. Paper towels are not your friend. Paper towels are made from wood fibers and scratch the living daylight (literally) out of your plastic.

To clean eisenglass - hose it off first. Lots of water. Then, with a clean (or better yet...new) microfiber towel, wipe/wash the each plastic panel with the hose pouring water in front of the towel and the towel wiping where the water just poured. Lots and lots of water.

Dry each panel with a chamois. I had a chamois that I kept specifically for my eisenglass panels. It didn't get used for anything else.

If your panels are hazy or otherwise dirty in any way, go back to the hose and microfiber washing towel. If that still doesn't take care of it, use Klear to Sea as you would any other cleaner.



Once you have the eisenglass clean on both sides - use Klear To Sea like you would a wax. Spray it on, spread it in a thin layer, let it dry to a haze and buff it off. 

Wiping in circles is bad. Wiping side to side is bad. Wiping top to bottom is the preferred method. Eventually, you will get light scratches in your plastic panels. Having the scratches in a circular pattern creates distortion that is hard to love. Same with side to side - the light scratches horizontally make things look bad. Light scratches top to bottom from wiping top to bottom, have the least impact in your sight lines.

No matter what is on your plastic panels, the cleaning process is the same. Water, then water and a microfiber towel, then Klear To Sea.

Wind that carries sand - bad for eisenglass. If you can't avoid it, then it is what it is. The scratches you will see are then just scars and you being proud of them is just showing off. Good for you for having been where it was windy, sandy and you needed your eisenglass up.

The enclosure you had made sure looks awesome. Kudos. 
 
Nick...Awesome enclosure! Can't wait for pics of the scenery now!

(JeffS: Wow! Sure am glad you bought a Benny & joined this forum!)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Awesome advice, Jeff! Thank you! I'm going to be using it in a pretty harsh sandy environment so it's good to start out treating it right. Very excited to try it out this weekend! :)
 
Looks great.....and great advice!
 
Went and actually picked up the boat this afternoon. The packed down size of the enclosure is not small! I'll probably leave it at home for trips I'm reasonably sure won't have bad weather. They wrapped it up in and around a large tube that the vinyl came in and layered in some sort of soft fabric between each piece, so no need to round up the bed sheets. They also gave me something that looks a lot like the product you mentioned, Jeff. It's called 210 plastic cleaner/polish.

While I had the boat in there, I also had them modify my Bennington mooring cover to make it tow-worthy. They added some straps to the front and a zip-on panel that covers the back deck. I guess that's more to keep the back deck clean while storing though. I have to drop it back off for the back panel when I return, but these are the straps they put on up front. I think I'm going to have them do one more where the cover cuts up near the cleats. Really excited to finally tow with a cover on. I was getting sick of stuff blowing away and having a soaked boat when the rain comes. 

cover-straps.JPG
 
One more thing... I just saw the updated forecast for Powell this weekend. That area averages something like 10" per year of rain, most of which comes during the summer monsoon season. They say they might get up to 2" when the tropical storm plume hits Friday into Saturday. Hello, flash flood waterfalls! Perfect timing to test the new enclosure! 
 
bcpnick - You might think about getting rub rail protectors.  Then your cover won't be stretched around your bunk stops.  I moved my winch stand back the distance the protectors added to the front of the boat. My dealer might order them and have them dropped shipped to you.  
 
bcpnick said:
The packed down size of the enclosure is not small!

I know...right? On our cruiser, we stored the enclosure sections under the mattress in the master stateroom. If you add a master stateroom...you can store them there too.

I'll probably leave it at home for trips I'm reasonably sure won't have bad weather.

A very good idea. Less chance for accidental damage.

They wrapped it up in and around a large tube that the vinyl came in and layered in some sort of soft fabric between each piece, so no need to round up the bed sheets.

That's good to have and keep. Still...if it were me, I'd be storing them flat. Over the winter, we would store ours in the basement hanging on clothes pins from the floor joists overhead. We'd then cover the whole thing with visqueen to keep the dust off. There's room for you to be concerned about small creases developing over time when stored on a roll.

They also gave me something that looks a lot like the product you mentioned, Jeff. It's called 210 plastic cleaner/polish.

I don't have any experience with 210, but I know it exists and is probably very similar. Maguire's makes a cleaner/polish too. Klear To Sea is the go-to product on the coasts for cruisers that are on salt water. Salt residue is very scratchy stuff. So I figured if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for me. I just don't know anything about 210.

While I had the boat in there, I also had them modify my Bennington mooring cover to make it tow-worthy. 

That's really awesome. If that's all there is to it, I may have that done as well. 
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nice job with the cover and the straps Nick!  Great ideas.
 
Awesome enclosure Nick!! It should add a whole other dimension to your excursions. And keep the pics coming!

I love your new tie-down tabs for towing with the mooring cover. We've got our first 'road trip' planned with this new boat in just a few weeks (~6hrs each way). Thinking of something similar in case the weather isn't cooperative during the trip there or back such that we would prefer to have it covered. I love the idea of permanent ties like you have but doubtful we could have ours modified in time.

More as a 'safety-catch' on the front and front sides only with just slight tension in case of a snap comes loose (not the primary holding point), anyone else have any thoughts about these?

http://www.easyklip.com/midi_klip.php

Pretty darn reasonable on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/EasyKlip-4101-220lbs-Black-4-Count/dp/B0039YOMBC/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1433519304&sr=1-1&keywords=EasyKlip+Midi+Black&pebp=1433519526056&perid=1QBCV39VCEDH6T4TXE9J

Or something very similar... Thought they might get us by for the near-term trip - again, only if weather would dictate. Curious if anyone has any experience with them as good or have caused more harm than good.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wow oh wow did the enclosure work great. Just got back from 5 days on the lake with some of the wildest weather I've ever seen in my life. It actually got so bad that my boat was within probably 20 feet of getting completely destroyed by a flash flood. It was so big that the flood pushed the lake back and we had huge rapids within stones throw of the stern where we were beached. I don't know if you guys know much about flash floods in the desert but this one was a classic with a crazy twist. It was the usual torrent of mud, trees, logs and debris, but what really made it wild was that it was filled with dime to quarter-sized hail. It was literally a raging river of ice for hours! So much that it accumulated into a massive field of icebergs that locked us into the canyon until it melted the next day. We were a little short on ice and actually bagged a bunch of it up to make the coolers last through the rest of the trip. We were probably 200 yards from where the lake ended, but the flow was strong enough to push the lake out. My boat had just the tips of the toons on sand before the flood, but during the flood probably 3/4 of my boat was laying on the beach with no water underneath it. I still can hardly believe it happened and that we were all safe and comfortable the whole time. And the irony... the canyon we were in is named Iceberg Canyon! 

I've got a ton of photos and video that I'll share soon, but here's one from our camp looking up canyon as the storm cleared. Just before this hit, we were hiking and kayaking up the entire canyon. Before the flood, the water only went to that old dead juniper tree in the distance, and that water was only a few feet deep, at best. Above that it was a dry, sandy wash. We had just hiked all the way to the top of the canyon. All that white-ish stuff that looks like foam is actually all ice. You can also see the icebergs building up in the eddies. Also, notice the distant waterfalls still streaming down the cliff faces, all upwards of 700-800 feet high. 

Oh, and the modified mooring/towing cover worked awesome too. I pulled it about 650 miles with it on and it held up like a champ! 

iceberg-flood.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
One last thing... when we got back to the marina today, there was a Premiere pontoon that had gotten hit by a similar flood event. It was destroyed. Still floating and driving but the exterior was all crumpled over, the bimini was missing and their seats were ripped open. I overheard them talking to another boater and they said that one of the toons was taking on water too. If I'd been parked a little further up canyon, or on the opposite beach, my boat would have looked pretty similar. Wild! I'll post a pic of it later. 
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Glad you are safe. I'm looking forward to the pictures.

Cheers, Steve
 
I shot a short video from inside the enclosure while we were cruising back to camp at about 20 mph. It was just so awesome how comfortable it made things. Once I get my photos processed, I'll be sure to share some of the dozens of amazing waterfalls we saw. 

https://youtu.be/UFZ_iDB45uY
 
Yeah, I saw that as well. We camped right across from that exact spot on our last trip. We were thinking about camping there but it was flooding when we arrived and it had plugged it up with debris. Scary spot to be. If you didn't notice it already, check out my video from where we were during the same storm in this post: http://club.benningtonmarine.com/index.php?/topic/5238-iceberg-canyon-flash-flood/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
bcpnick said:
I shot a short video from inside the enclosure while we were cruising back to camp at about 20 mph. It was just so awesome how comfortable it made things. Once I get my photos processed, I'll be sure to share some of the dozens of amazing waterfalls we saw. 

https://youtu.be/UFZ_iDB45uY
Click to expand...
Wow, that enclosure looks even better while underway!
 
BulldogsCadillac said:
Wow, that enclosure looks even better while underway!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was really surprised how well it did at speed. And when we were going into a 15-20 mph head wind I kept thinking how awful that usually is at 20-30 mph, but inside it was just fine. No flapping or anything. Now when the sun comes out, it's a whole different story though. We called it 'the greenhouse'. 
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top