I wanted to avoid the several hundred dollars each season for shrink-wrap, and due to the heavy winters in NE PA wanted a cover. I inherited from the previous owner a large (and heavy) canvas cover long enough for the whole boat. I decided to build a frame of 1.5 inch PVC pipes, and my design goal was a 45 deg angle on the canvas to aid the snow sliding off, and also to prevent snow/canvas weight on the stanchions.

This consists of seven A frames, each with a vertical leg long enough to lift the base of the A above the stanchion. There are a couple of long 1.5 inch PVC ridge poles, the forward one attached to an aluminum bracket bolted to the masts foot in the bow pulpit. The 23 has no real toe rail for attachment, so each leg has a PVC T fitting that has a side slot cut out on the bottom, about the width of the molded toe rail - so the T straddles the toe rail.

I tie a line around each T and then tie it down to the trailer frame to hold these bases in place. The two 45 deg rafters in each frame unit fit into a 90 deg PVC elbow. I am not happy with this design as I cant cement the rafters to the elbow - or else I could not transport the larger frames. I will try to improve it in future.

The ridge poles have 4.5 inc bolts installed vertically, so the bolt end extends down below the bottom of the PVC - these in turn stick into holes drilled in the top of each 90 deg elbow. The rafters are attached to the legs with 45 deg elbows.

Once the frame is in place and tied down (a bit of an ordeal to assemble) I pull the canvas up over the bow and slide it back over the whole boat. The covers grommets have lines that tie down under the hull or to the trailer frame using truckers hitches, so it is as tight to the plastic ribs as I can make it. I am able to enter the boat from the stern when the cover is on to do work, though you have to stoop down.