Aurora Canvas Cover
on my 2000 TR-20PD
April 16, 2008
I saved over $200 by buying a cover that Aurora Canvas already had in stock. It was a perfect fit for my boat, including the MinnKota trolling motor, except for one thing - it was made for a dual console boat. Aurora rectified this problem by installing a detachable, retractable pole to support the area of the cover where the passenger side console would normally go.
Below is the female snap sewn to the cover. It sets right where the top of the passenger console windshield would be if my boat had a passenger console.
Here's the male snap attached to the top of the pole. The black thing on the pole that you can barely see at the lower right is the adjusting mechanism for the pole to get the height right.
Here's the pole attached to the snap on the cover.
Here you can see how the pole holds up the passenger side of the cover.
My cover had an area on the front deck where water would pool because of the height of the MinnKota trolling motor and because the cover was designed to have the front sit-down seat in place to hold up front of it. I found this PURPLE (Go K-State!!) plastic beach ball in the toy department at Wal-Mart for a couple bucks. As I put on the cover, I position the beach ball just in front and to the right of the front seat pedestal. I can't put it dead over the pedestal because the front eye for my Tak-L-Safe screws into the pedestal hole.
Here's a picture of the cover secured with the beach ball in place. No more water pooling!
If you've read any of my posts on Bass Boat Central about Aurora Canvas covers, you've probably heard me mention the "rope ratchets". Well, below you see what they look like.
The upper rope runs through the bottom hem of the cover. Note that I've tied a loop in the tag end of the rope at the bottom to fit over my wrist like a dog leash. That allows me to put my full weight on the rope to get it TIGHT!! It's very important to get the hem tight to keep the cover from flapping while being towed.
The small silver vertical bar just to the right of the S-hook is the release. The ratchet is like a come-along - it only goes in one direction until you press the release.
This is where I secure the S-hook - in the lower hole of my jackplate. This shows the rope just barely tightened.
The picture below shows the hem rope pulled as tight as I can physically get it. I then tie the excess rope off to anything that's handy - in the case the mounting arm for the hydraulic steering cylinder - to keep it from flapping in the breeze while towing.
Here's a close-up of two of the straps on the left side of my cover. Notice the 1/2 twists in both the up and down runs of the straps. This keeps the straps from strumming in the wind like a guitar string. Also notice that I've wrapped the loose ends of the straps around the strap using a series of half hitches so they don't flap in the wind.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention this when I first this article. Early on, I installed the cover, got it perfectly centered and tightened very tighly. I then cut ALL THE EXCESS from the straps on the right (drivers/starboard) side of the cover. Now when I put the cover on, I simply drape it over the boat, snap all the straps on the starboard side, then do all the tightening of the straps from the left (port) side of the boat. That insures that the cover goes on in exactly the same way in the same location every time.
I hope this helps someone with their Aurora Canvas cover. I towed this boat from Wichita, KS, to Lake Guntersville, AL, then to Lake Fork, TX, and finally back home last year with the cover in place. We drove through some incredibly heavy rain going across Arkansas - we could barely see where we were going. When we reached Alabama, I let the cover dry and then pulled it off to see how much water was in the boat. I was pleasantly surprised to find the boat was BONE DRY!! Also, there was not a scratch on the boat caused by the cover. Like I said before - the cover must be TIGHT!!
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