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I tapped into my courage, and decided to finally tackle the new bimini project. The zippers were failing, and flaking, and we knew that once we took this bimini down, it would never go back up.
"A Bimini top is an open-front canvas top for the cockpit of a boat, usually supported by a metal frame."
Wikipedia
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| The old bimini with the reinforcement I put on a couple of years ago. |
We haven't taken the dodger down yet, one piece at a time.
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| It's off. |
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| Gus is helping. |
The topside is really dirty, and the chafe guard on the leading edge is chafed. 😁
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| The underside I kept clean with regular washings. |
Except for the bimini being dirty, the zippers failing, and the rigging holes at the aft edge leaking rainwater, the material, and stitching was in pretty good shape. That's a testament to quality material, and good UV Lifetime thread. The previous owners let us know that this enclosure was made in 2007, in Trinidad, and it hasn't been down since.
It clouded up, and we've had nothing but rain since. I've dashed out a couple of times to try and lay things out straight to measure, and seamstick it together, but I usually have to gather it all back up, and dash back inside.
Bill draped the Noah's Tarp over the framework of the bimini, and we tried to keep the rain out, and provide a dry place to work in. It was a no-go. The rain created pockets, that didn't run off, and the wind gusts kept flapping it around. We didn't want to ruin the tarp, so we took it down.
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| Water buckets. |
Bill draped the Noah's Tarp over the framework of the bimini, and we tried to keep the rain out, and provide a dry place to work in. It was a no-go. The rain created pockets, that didn't run off, and the wind gusts kept flapping it around. We didn't want to ruin the tarp, so we took it down.
So now I have the space in the pilothouse to work in. I can lay about half of the bimini out at a time, and Gus loves to help.
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| "I'll just hold it down here, Mom" |
I'm about half-way done, and I've gone slow and sure, I'm going to do a larger write up about the process when I'm done. On the Facebook page, "Sewing on Boats", I've been asking questions, and answering questions, and I'll need a post about what materials I used, and why, and about the process I took. Sailrite has terrific how-to videos, but my bimini is far more complicated than the one they create, so I had to do a bit of my own engineering.
As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.
I envy your skill with a sewing machine. Melissa bought be a cheap walking foot machine with the idea that if I could develop some skill with that and didn't take it apart or break it, we might get a sailrite. Well I used it some to make canvas buckets and bags but I never could get the tensioning right. We sold it to a more competent seamster (is that a guy seamstress?)
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work and enjoy the sunshine when you can.
Thanks Mike, I've been sewing a very long time, since I was about six. Tension is my worst nightmare, it's a very difficult thing to adjust. Gender neutral - seamster, good job.
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