You've got a beautiful piece of engineering there Nick, and like you said about Nigels.....It'll be a shame to get it wet
I've only got a humble Okuma but manage to keep it in pristine condition by not catching anything and always making sure the unhooking mat is ready to catch it if I miss the rod rest.
The other ruse I use to keep all my gear in tip-top condition, is to break my arm so that I can't go fishing anyway.
Thank god it happened at the start of the close season.....It was my rod arm, so I'm trying to do everything left-handed.......Tricky, to say the least (cleaning teeth etc).
Any way , it has put paid to my ideas about doing a bit of fluff flinging during the close season.
Cheers Pete