So hopefully it's ok that I'm starting this thread!
Here's the situation: new (to me) Yankee 30 in need of lots of work (including painting of hull & deck), winter is arriving, budget (time and money) is limited. I'd like the shed to last through three planned winters of significant work (with sailing seasons in between), and then would like to continue using it for storage after that (more or less a permanent shelter). I understand that the covering would need replacing periodically, but don't know how often).
My location is windy - sometimes very windy. Here's a picture of where the boat is now:
That's looking from our house to the East, this one looks Northeast:
(larger images here and here - if they're not showing up try again later, my host has been flakey lately)
And we're exposed to the North as well. The snow is from last night's storm - should be gone by mid-week, but we will have snow in varying quantities for most of the winter. The winds last night weren't too bad - 35 knots gusting to 45 - but we do get some doozies every winter, so whatever I build has got to be able to take high winds with no protection from trees or other structures.
The boat is 30' long, but the trailer tongue adds a couple of feet, and I'll need space behind when I paint, so the shed should be 35' long, minimum. Since the boat is on a trailer it's higher than it would be on stands - the deck is around 10' off the ground (higher at the bow, lower at the stern). The beam is 9' at the widest, so at 10' off the ground I need ~14' of width in the shed. More would be nice, but that ought to do.
The shed's position will be either where the boat is, with the shed it's beside moved to the right, or on the other side of that shed, with the shed moved to where the boat is now.
I had figured on building a Stimson shed and covering it with shrink-wrap. I've heard that they actually stand up to wind better than some stick-built permanent buildings, probably because they flex rather than break (as long as they're tied to the ground sufficiently, of course). I was planning bows on 2' centers, and I don't know how long to make the bows since I haven't worked out how to figure making it 14' wide at 10' off the ground. Assuming that you, who have far more experience of Stimson sheds than I, agree that it ought to be able to handle the wind, this still seems like the ideal solution. Inexpensive, relatively nice to look at, and bright with white shrink-wrap covering it. But my current problem is one of time: I'm running out of it. Night falls before I'm done work, so I only have weekends to build it, and assuming that the 40 hour estimate to build is correct (dubious) that puts me at about three weeks to finish the project. At this time of year that seems like too long. The cost of this option I'm estimating at $1400 - $1000 for the lumber and $400 for the shrink-wrapping.
I've investigated clearspan and other shelters, and it seems I could have one delivered to me from a Canadian company for $4200. It would be a metal-framed structure with frames on 4' centers, covered in an 18 mil (9 oz) tarp. They claim it would take me 4-5 hours to erect (with two friends), and that the ground it sits on doesn't have to be 100% level. It comes with anchors, but since mine is a high-wind application I might want to purchase an additional anchoring solution, or come up with one of my own. The downside to this is that it's much more expensive, and while they say it's rated for "winter and wind" - they don't guarantee it for that. The salesperson (the most reliable person in the world, obviously!) says that the only time they've seen wind damage to one of their structures it was due to user error (insufficient anchoring or a door left open in a storm, that sort of thing). Dunno.
Assuming that both sheds are equal, the one uses up budget in terms of time, the other in terms of money. The cost of the shed (as with most of us) comes out of what can be spent on the boat - in more absolute terms with regard to money than with time, since if I use up time now I'll add it in the end, but...
I guess I'm hoping that I will be convinced that a Stimson shed is wonderful and is worth the time invested. It'll stand up to 70 knot winds and hold up over the years as long as I replace the shrink-wrap every 4 years and patch it in between, and that it doesn't have to be impossibly tall to manage 14' at 10' off the ground. Or that there is another type of shed that I could build faster that would be strong enough and last well enough, that costs somewhere in the middle between the two. Or...?
Thanks!
Chris