Affordable boat covers
 

Looking for a new cover for my '85 Nautique 2001. Don't want to spend a fortune on it, so looking for experiences with not-so-expensive covers.
Anyone bought on Amazon, E-bay, West Marine, etc? Experiences?

All I found was junk from amazon, Ebay. I ended up buying from this guy for like $450.00 & am very pleased with it

http://www.baldmikes.com/boat-covers.html

They come with the ugly straps but I have yet to use them, the cinch draw string works great on its own

Shark skin. Great cover. Great customer service.

you check out skiboatcovers.com? just ordered a sunbrella cover from them for a very reasonable price, granted the boat is in storage and i havent tested fitment yet....

I was looking for a cover for my Saltare a few months ago. It unfortunately stays outside and the generic fit full sides cover that came with it finally tore. I was looking at $700-ish to get a similar cover even if not an exact fit. I do have a nice snap cover I use on vacation when it stays in the water, but when on the trailer I prefer to tent it high to keep anything from puddling so need a larger cover and want the sides covered from the sun too. Was hoping to find something around $300... but couldn't find anything so off to Harbor Freight for a tarp. Under $50 with coupon for the thicker types they had, tented high and covered full sides leaving some space to breathe. Works in a pinch if you don't want to spend a fortune and if it tears I'm not pissed.

Keep an eye on overtons, they run sales often. I think I paid roughly 3-400 bucks for my 2002 VLX cover when I had it

Thanks folks!
Baldmikes (/sharkskin) has some great prices now (35% off), but not for '85 Nautiques. Only the 87-89 model.
Both iBoats and coversearch.com have custom Sunbrella covers for $400-$430. Anyone have experience buying from them?
So many sites, so many covers...

My sunbrella from I boats wasnt bad for the price

I bought one from Iboats.com a few years back for my old supersport. They had really good prices and fast deliver, here the ones for your boat.


http://boatcovers.iboats.com/Correct...t_id=923108041

Sorry didn't read you already found Iboats but I really like my Iboats cover

i've had good luck with covers from iboats. carver is the manufacturer for some, good support. some of the stitching on my previous cover tore and iboats let me use the pro-rated warranty to upgrade to sunbrella at really nice price.

Do you plan on towing with the cover on? If so I wouldn't go the route of sharkskin. I would buck up the extra money for a sunbrella type material.

Have you asked a local boat cover/canvas shop or upholstery shop for an estimate? That boats not very big and I bet you could get a nice custom cover in the 500 range. There are 3-4 good shops in my small town here so I'm sure you could find somebody in your price range.

Gotta disagree about the Sharkskin cover. My experience was they don't breath and cause mold to form very quickly.

For a budget cover, I bought a nice Carver Sun-Dura cover for my ski boat and it was only about $300. Sheds water, breathes well, doesn't cause mold, and fits well.

^^^^^ Agree I've seen a sharkskin cover cause a bunch of mold too.

Excellent info, thanks!

Yeah I got a quote locally; $900 or $1200 depending on Sunbrella-type. Ouch.

Think I'll get one from iBoats, just looking for someone who can bring it with them to Costa Rica. Volunteers?! ;)

Anyone happen to know (or have a clue) what a sunbrella cover for Nautique 2001 or similar sized boat weighs?

Ordering the sunbrella special from iBoats. Found some people that might want to bring it to CR, but need to be able to tell them about how much they'll need to carry.
Thanks!

sunbrella is a pretty light material. My sunbrella cover for my 210, which should be a very similar weight to the 2001 cover, is probably 10-15lbs.

Thanks!