1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: 2022 Whooped Tent Model XXX

There was a snow storm on January 2nd that dumped 10″ at my house. It was the most bizarre snow I’d ever seen. Trees everywhere were literally broken in half by the weight of it. Big limbs of evergreen holly trees, pines, and magnolias snapped off from the weight.

Broken holly limbs

25′ oak and maple saplings out back lose their leaves in the fall so they have less surface area in winter than evergreens, but the sticky, heavy snow got to them anyway. They were more supple than the big evergreens and bent over until their tips touched the ground. Even after the snow melted, all the bent trees remain in the shape the snow left them.

90% of the saplings are bent over

I wonder if they’ll straighten out when the sap rises in Spring?

I’ve been extremely busy with the lawsuit against my former employer (the first hearing is scheduled for April), and snow had always slid off of the sloped roof of Tent Model XXX before it built up too much. So I wasn’t especially concerned about the boat. I kept thinking ‘I need to go check on the Roamer,’ but with more discovery requests and interrogatories that had tight deadlines, the Roamer just wasn’t the top priority.

Finally, on February 5, I caught a break and decided to make a run to the marina. I was crossing my fingers as I drove into the parking lot. The boatyard is full of hauled boats, so I couldn’t see the tent until I walked up to it. It felt like I took a punch to the gut when I looked up and saw the forward half of the roof had completely collapsed.

Climbing up to the deck level, this is what I saw:

The entire tent roof forward of the helm had collapsed

The roof over the hardtop held up

Even though the tent roof over the hardtop is virtually flat, it held up just fine. This makes no sense to me, but I’m glad it held up.

Fortunately, most of the broken 1-1/2″ PVC pipe fell on blankets and handrails

I think the word “miracle” is overused, but despite the 2″ x 4″ center ridge breaking in three places and all of the PVC rafters snapping like twigs, almost all of the pieces fell in ways that, from what I’ve seen so far, managed not to damage the paint beyond a few scuffs.

Ridge support on the cabin top almost survived

The ridge support in the pic above has an X-shaped base that’s covered with cloth padding encased in soft but tough blue plastic. It was previously in the middle of the cabin top, on the shipping blanket. The padding and blue plastic protected the paint when Mother Nature suddenly relocated it to the side and broke the post loose from the base. But it had stayed upright long enough to punch a giant hole in the shrink wrap tent roof.

Up on the bow, a tangled mess of broken 2x4s and PVC pipe

I got busy cleaning up all of the loose pieces of lumber and PVC pipe, then surgically removed the parts that were still connected. It was challenging because it was a windy day. When 20+ MPH gusts hit the loose roof plastic and blow in through the big holes, the whole thing would flap around. That didn’t help as I was trying to extricate 10′ long pieces of PVC pipe with sharp bits on either end where they broke.

In another surprising twist of good fortune, the framing collapse was so catastrophically complete, that no part of the hard lumber or PVC were affected by the flapping plastic roof film in the month between the storm and the day I showed up to find the mess. Since the hard bits weren’t moving, they weren’t scraping holes in the paint, as happened when the Big 2018 Nor’easter Whooped Tent Model XXX. Once I got all the busted roof parts out of the way, I went to the hardware store and bought a box of deck screws, PVC pipe glue, and a bunch of fittings. I also brought a 12′ 2×4 up from the lumber rack under the boat. Six hours later, the roof ridge and two of the PVC rafters are back in place.

It’s tough getting the rafter length right with the roof film flapping away

I really hate using that purple PVC pipe primer over my Matterhorn white Awlgrip paint job. But with lots of blankets and cardboard protecting the paint, I managed to put up two of the four rafters without any spills or drips.

I plan to head back to the boat tomorrow, fix the other two PVC rafters, then try to patch up all of the holes in the shrink wrap. Fortunately, I didn’t shrink the whole top before. So once I’m done with repairs, I’ll hit the unshrunk sections of the roof, which should tighten the whole thing up.

Oh! And word has it the marina owner is taking it back from the current lessee in August. The owner is a very picky dude who owns most of the marinas in the area, and he does not support DIY. Great!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Tent Model XXX Has Been De-whooped