Hauled Out for the Winter

ECHO is now hauled out at a marina on the Connecticut River.  This location is close to my cabinet maker friend.  I like this place. Their prices are cheap and they are friendly.  Not the typical marina where the whole staff treats you like dirt and never responds. These people are nice!

ECHO is hauled out next to Ada Belle II and Ron and I built a platform between the two boats, a staircase up to the platform.  I use a saw horse and a box for steps up to my boat.  Under the platform is a workbench and an electrical distribution box, below that is another shelf off the ground.  I may shrink wrap around this area to keep it somewhat protected.  I also plan to put in a small flood lamp over the workbench.

Much of ECHO is unloaded and stored at home.  A few more things need to come off the boat.  Both boats will be shrunk wrapped this year and I'll need a zipper doorway to load things inside.

This is an update to this post showing the frame put together to provide some headroom inside.  

That is Echo behind the maroon Mercedes.  Marco is working on Ada Belle.  Three of us worked on the two boats.  We spent part of a day building frames and installing strapping to support the shrink wrap, and a day (4-5 hours) on each boat.

 Inside view.  I used a boom from another boat--the smaller one on the right.  It was not needed as I was given some PVC which made a nicer arc.  I will probably remove that and take it home.

Here is ECHO looking pretty dry and tight.  There are a few small gaps at that I will try to tape up, but I don't expect much water to be able to get in.

I have a nice piece of marine plywood for the aft bulkhead I'm installing.  I'll need to measure carefully before installing it, to be sure I can fit it in the boat and secure it to the boat and steering supports.  That will be the next major project on ECHO.  Once complete I can order a 100 gallon fuel tank and install it.