Boat shrink wrap
Motor boats, RIBs and day boats wrapped for winter storage ashore or afloat. Framed to shed water, vented to control condensation, and fitted with a zipped door if you need access.
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Marine & boats
Framed, vented, heat-welded covers for winter lay-up, refits, yard moves and long-haul transport. We work out of the Isle of Wight, ten minutes from Cowes, and travel to yards and marinas the length of the coast.
The basics
Marine shrink wrap is a heavy polythene film that is laid over a frame built on the boat, then heated so it shrinks drum tight into a single sealed skin. It is also called boat shrink wrapping, yacht covers or winter boat covers, and it is the standard way to protect a vessel stored ashore through a UK winter.
The film itself does nothing without the frame underneath it. A cover thrown straight over the rails ponds water in the low spots, and ponded water freezes, stretches the film and eventually finds its way through. The frame is what makes the water run off, and it is the part cheap covers skip.
Some people search for it as boat shrink wrapping, yacht covers, winter boat covers or marine shrink wrapping. It is the same process, and it is what we do every week.
The comparison
Applications
Motor boats, RIBs and day boats wrapped for winter storage ashore or afloat. Framed to shed water, vented to control condensation, and fitted with a zipped door if you need access.
Sailing yachts wrapped with the rig stepped or unstepped. Where the mast stays up we detail the film around the rig and standing rigging so there is no chafe point and no open seam.
Full containment for sanding, spraying, osmosis treatment and antifoul work. Keeps dust and overspray inside the envelope, keeps weather out, and lets the yard work to programme through winter.
Hulls wrapped before they go on a low loader or into a container. Protects gelcoat and brightwork from road grime, salt spray and stone chip over long distances, including European deliveries.
Seasonal covers for boats laid up ashore from October through to spring, removed and disposed of by us at the end of the season if you would rather not handle it.
Jet skis, tenders, davits, outboards, marina equipment and dockside plant. Anything that has to sit out through a winter and come back working.
Named projects
Anyone can say they wrap things. These are real sites, photographed as we left them. See every project →
The elevation above Ronnie Scott’s on Frith Street, encapsulated while the club kept its doors open every night, alongside Pinnacle Scaffolding.
A venue that opens at 6.30pm and closes at 3am does not stop for a scaffold. The wrap sat above the fascia, the scaffold bridged the pavement, and the sign stayed lit underneath.
Shrink wrap enclosing the base of an Imperial College London building, running along the elevation and in under the entrance canopy behind Imperial’s own branded hoarding.
A university building stays open while work goes on. The wrap had to seal the work zone and sit cleanly alongside the client’s hoarding, in full view of everyone walking in.
A scaffold-built temporary structure with a trussed roof, fully enclosed in shrink wrap alongside Stellar Scaffolding.
Photographed from bare frame to finished enclosure — the whole structure sealed, roof and elevations, and lit up at night.
The method
Length, beam, freeboard, rig and cradle are measured on site or from photos, and we agree where you need access before anything is cut.
Timber battens or webbing are run fore and aft over a ridge line, padded at every contact point, so the finished cover sheds water and never bears on brightwork.
Film is drawn over the frame and heat-welded panel to panel into one continuous skin. No tapes, no laps to lift.
Even heat passes bring the film drum tight, creases are chased out to the perimeter, and the base skirt is sealed under the hull line.
Vents are fitted at the high and low points to keep air moving, and zipped hatches go in wherever you need to board through the winter.
We come back, strip the cover and take the film away for recycling. Frame timber is removed at the same time.
Specification
Pricing
The single biggest driver. Cover area rises faster than length because beam and freeboard grow with it.
A stepped mast means framing and detailing around the rig and standing rigging. Budget more time.
Flybridges, arches, davits, radar posts and open cockpits all add battens and detailing.
A boat in a yard we already visit costs less to reach than a one-off trip to a private mooring.
We do not publish a price per foot, because the honest answer is that a 32ft flybridge cruiser and a 32ft sailing yacht with the rig up are different jobs. What you get instead is a fixed price after survey, with removal and disposal priced in from the start so there is no spring surprise. Send the length, make and model and we will give you a realistic figure the same working day.
Before we quote
Every job starts with a survey. We measure it, work out the frame, the film area, the seams and the fixings — and the number you get back is the number you pay. No provisional sums, no "subject to access".
Job 4487 · Cowes
Illustrative figures. Your survey is carried out on site — or from photos, if you'd rather start there.
Recent work
Where we work
We install marine shrink wrap from our Isle of Wight base and travel the length of the country every week. Cowes, Southampton, Portsmouth, Port Solent, Poole, Bournemouth, Weymouth, Plymouth, Brighton, Chichester and Southend on the south coast; London, Croydon, Watford, Luton, Southend and Chatham in the south east; and Birmingham, Liverpool, Hull, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen further north. Travel is priced into the quote up front, so there are no surprises.
Common questions
Price is driven by length and beam, whether the rig stays up, how much framing the shape needs and where the boat is. We survey first, on site or from photos, and give you a fixed price with removal and disposal included. Send the length, make and model and we will come back the same working day.
Yes. We build the frame around the rig and detail the film where it meets the mast and standing rigging so there is no chafe point and no open seam. It takes longer than an unstepped wrap, so tell us at survey stage and we will price it properly.
No. The film is shrunk onto the frame rather than the boat and every contact point is padded, so nothing bears on the hull. Covers are vented as standard, which is what prevents the mildew and staining people associate with badly fitted covers.
A properly framed and vented cover will comfortably see out a UK winter, and many hold up well beyond a year. Exposure, film gauge and the quality of the frame all affect it.
For storage ashore, yes. Tarpaulins pond water, flog in wind, chafe the gelcoat and need re-tensioning through the season. A framed and shrunk cover is one sealed skin with nothing to work loose.
Yes. We are Isle of Wight based and cover the Solent and South Coast heavily — Cowes, Southampton, Portsmouth, Port Solent, Poole, Plymouth — and travel further for larger jobs. Travel is priced into the quote up front.
Yes, and it is one of the main reasons people wrap. A shrunk cover has no loose edge to lift at motorway speed and keeps road salt and stone chip off gelcoat and brightwork.
We can, and we would rather do it. Removal and responsible disposal or recycling of the film is priced into the original quote so it is dealt with in one arrangement.
Other services
Start from your phone
Not every job needs a site visit to get going. Send a couple of photos and rough dimensions and one of our installers will tell you what's involved — including when shrink wrap isn't the right call.
Whole item in frame, plus one close-up of the access side.
WhatsApp or email, with the postcode and the date you need it by.
Approach, timescale and a price — usually the same working day.
Quick quote
Rough dimensions and a photo are enough to get a price moving. If it's urgent, ring — someone who's actually installed the stuff will pick up.
Quick quote
Tell us what
needs covering.