Towing with cover on and rubbing

[xxrb2010]

I'm not really sure what point you were trying to make.

Mine is simple: It is not worth the risk to tow with a cover on. Any cover. As the OP stated, he has places on the gelcoat and vinyl that are rubbed and chafed. Maybe they can be repaired? I don't know. Doesn't matter. Any bugs that would have gotten on the boat could be easily cleaned. Again, risk vs. reward.

My point was that it depends on the cover and how in good shape the cover is and maybe how the user setup the cover on the boat. I strapped it so tight that you cannot even put your finger under it . There are many variables and all those variables will give different results on your gelcoat. As someone said, some have no issue while others have plenty of issues. To the OP, if he does not trust his cover, do not tow with it as many have advised. To any other reading this forum, this is not as simple as just do not do it. Ask your dealer if you got a brand new cover and boat from nautique, he might know better than any of us. Jeff also should know better, if I am right, he gets a new boat every year and tow a lot. So he might be able to shed some lights on the subject.

[blueroom]

I tow without the cover. But..... When I picked up my boat for its 700 mile journey home, the dealer insisted that I should use the cover. They said they tow hundreds of miles regularly without issue, and that the trick was cinching it up incredibly tight. They were right, no issues.

[Tallredrider]

Gang, we're not talking about anecdotes here. There will be PLENTY of people with "Towed mine hundreds of miles with no problem." We're talking about risk vs. reward. I've seen too much cover damage on boats to take the risk. It simply isn't worth it. I can spend an hour cleaning bugs off. I have no desire to have the boat in the shop for 4 weeks getting fiberglass repaired.

It is sort of funny...since the stories of covers damaging the boats are also anecdotes. What would be better information, which I think we will never have, is how many people towed and how many people ended up with boat damage from a rogue cover. Calculating risk is going to be difficult here. This thread has opened my eyes that a lot more people than expected have concerns about towing with the cover on, so I am more playing devil's advocate with charlesml3

I know lots of people have hit rocks at one lake I go to, it doesn't stop me from going there.

I have heard a lot of G23 have the prop fall off, but I still owned one.

My personal practice is that I never use the cover while towing unless I have gear that I feel might blow out and cannot be put anywhere else.