Just wondering if anyone has experience with the Danuu and/or Bag Lady canoe covers. Poly covers are about the same in price. Danuu fits like a blanket while Bag Lady is more like a sock. More interested in long term outside storage in N.J., not travel. My boat is kevlar with wood trim. Thanks.
Sues poly covers are more for transpirt
– Last Updated: Jan-09-13 9:08 AM EST –
to keep UV bugs and rocks from harming the hull.
She makes covers in Weather Max for outside storage. I have three covers from her. The fit and finish is perfect. Weather Max is waterproof, yet breathable to avoid moisture build up that can rot gunwales and splotch hulls.
Sue makes covers according to your specific canoe. I have a Danuu cover too. They make a limited number of sizes and in my case the canoe it needed to cover is way too short for the bag. The fit is sloppy.
Bag Lady Covers
I have the Bag Lady cover, but don’t use it for outside storage. It’s on my Rapidfire in the garage for winter storage and it is also used while traveling to reduce the amount of sand blasting I was getting on the front of the boat from driving the 600+ miles to the Adirondacks and back a half dozen times each year.
I chose to have the cover made in the more breathable material she offers. Quality is excellent and Sue is good to work with when selecting a cover. She makes them in two different materials so you may want to give her a call and discuss how you intend to use the cover.
If you can do it, support the cover so
that it does not rest on the hull or the gunwales. The “Sue’s” covers sound great, but even the best cover might cause mischief if blowing around against the hull surface for a long time, or if humidity is so high for so long that there is no humidity gradient to move moisture away from the hull.
I have a giant canoe cover that stands away from the hulls. It’s called a carport.
Bag lady
I have two of her covers. One is used on my Rapidfire for travel and the other for outside storage a few months of the year at a camp on a Prism with aluminum rails. The cover used outside did fine though it did fade a bit which was the idea. I was mainly concerned with sun damage. The cover is a tight fit so no damage due to flapping in the breeze. My cover is not waterproof though so wood rails on your boat could present a problem.
Other alternatives for storage
I don’t own a canoe bag and have never thought one to be a useful investment of money.
G2D raises good points about contact and restricted air flow with canoe bags. If you are mainly concerned with outside storage, you can wrap canoes loosely and open-ended in cheap blue tarps. Better yet, tent some blue tarps over your canoe rack to allow air flow while positioned to block sun and rain. Yeah, you’d probably have to re-rig them from time to time.
canoe bags
I have two canoe bags for outside storage. I don’t know who made them. I usually keep the end unzipped with the canoe off the ground. They have worked fine for several years and are very helpful at keeping the UV light off the boats.
A tightly wrapped
canoe will suffer “blushing” of the surface. After learning this the hard way, I attached some lengths of foam pipe insulation to the inside of the tarp using cable ties. This, of course, leaves small holes where the cable ties are but otherwise seems to provide enough ventilation to inhibit blushing. For my next iteration of this system, I’m going to try to avoid the holes by glueing the pipe insulation in.
Peter