Finding the Right Tarp and Dealing with Rainwater Coming Under the Floorboards

[benjiara]

Hi,

I have a 2017 Saturn inflatable (I believe the SD470) with an old 25 hp Tohatsu outboard. My dad and I have been working on getting it ready to launch in the water (a saltwater bay/the Long Island Sound). A serious issue we've been having is that my tarp hasn't been sufficient in preventing rainwater from entering the boat and collecting under the floorboards. We've been having to deflate the boat a bit and empty the water out with a small electric pump.

What would be an optimal tarp to get? When I purchased the boat secondhand, it came with a nice tarp from the manufacturer but it's oddly enough far too small to cover the boat and Saturn doesn't appear to sell a tarp for my boat online. Ideally, the tarp would also be setup to not collect water itself (we've been using makeshift solutions with the current tarp).

In addition, is there any purpose to the openings in the floorboard? Is it safe to cover them up and if so how should I go about doing that?

Thank you so much any help!

-Benji

[Peter_C]

Welcome to the board

A proper expensive boat cover is probably best. With that said I just use a tarp that lasts a year or two. The trick with a tarp is to have it cover from bow to stern, and run a rope from bow to stern. Support the rope with sticks of wood, or build some kind of christmas tree stand for stability. The tarp needs to form a tent. As I keep mine on a trailer it is easy to just use metal quick clamps from Home Depot @$.99 each. They rust but who cares, as they function perfectly for years.

Brand of tarp is hard to say. Remarkably the Costco ones are really good. I use them for covering my tractors even. Harbor Freight even sells decent ones, and I would bet most are made in China no matter where you buy.

In the summer I also open up the bow to vent heat to lessen damage.

I've never seen a Saturn boat in person so I have idea what the holes in the floor are. When I had a Zodiac it had drain plugs that were below deck. For beach recovery with an already heavy boat I added in a Whale brand bilge pump.