This is a project that I have been meaning to do since we bought the boat. The admiral originally wanted an aft-cabin with an enclosed rear deck, but I think those are a bit ugly.

We compromised, and I told her I'd put an aft-cabin bimini on the boat so that we could have the utility of an enclosed deck, but can fold up the bimini rapidly.

So a bimini is a promise I made to the admiral as a condition to buy the boat almost two years ago.

And for those of you keeping track, so far I have 15 minutes of "boat time" involved in this project - just enough to take measurements.

All of the other construction time has or will be spent at home during the week.

And when I install the bimini, maybe another 1/2 hour of boat time.

Unfortunately, the bimini is an odd shape. Its 125" wide, 52" long, and 55" high. While standard sized bimini tops can be had for about $400 or less, they are often made of aluminum, and a maximum of 8'-6" is the widest I could buy; no one makes one anywhere near the width I needed.

Aluminum is fine, but for wide bows, stainless is recommended. And I always worry about corrosion issues when mis-matching metals. Me thinks you might eventually see a little corrosion around the aluminum near the stainless fittings. For that reason, I think many boatbuilders use nylon fittings with aluminum.

So before starting this project, I got 4 estimates from different canvas shops to see how much a custom canvas job would be, and they were in the $2,000 to $3,000 range.

That was last year, and since then, we bought our Sailrite sewing machine, so we had the tools to do the canvas work.

The problem is how to get such a large bimini frame. As luck would have it, I found out Sailrite custom makes their own bimini frames with a machine they have in the shop. They normally make narrower frames (8 1/2ft wide or less), then cut them into three sections, then ship them with splines to attach the pieces. This is pretty much standard for any frame you get via UPS.

But when I talked to the owner about the frame, he said there would be no problem in making a wide set of frames without cutting them - provided I come pick the frames up.

Sailrite is located in northern Indiana, less than a 2 hour drive from my home, so I figured, I'll just lash the frame to my pickup.

The bimini frame is 1 7/8 stainless steel as with the recommendation of Sailrite that a long frame is better stainless than aluminum. I ended up paying about $125 per bow, which was actually only the cost of the tubing - and they threw the bending in for no additional charge. Nice of them to do that.

The bimini will attach to the top of the stern railing, which is also stainless. Since I did not want to cut the stern rail, I had to buy some rather expensive clam-shell attachment hardware.

Here is the admiral and my nice lashing job for the frame when we picked it up at Sailrite.



I built a plywood frame in the basement to pre-construct the bimini. Man, 125" x 52" is a big size, and its about all we can do to fit the frame in the basement. I ordered the bimini a bit long on the sides so that I could fit the bimini to the exact size.



I created a spreadsheet using trigonometry, so that all I had to do is enter the finished size of the frame, the desired angles, and it would calculate the lengths of the sides. However, I ended up cutting each frame by about 3" per try as I didn't trust $400 worth of stainless steel to my math skills. But in the end, the formulas I worked out were accurate.



The frame is finally mocked-up, and fitted to size. I left a slight bow from front to back to help in water run-off.



The frame also folds up properly so that each of the bows are all bundled together at the top.

The next step is to make a pattern, cut it out, then sew everything together.

With the cost of the frame, all of the stainless hardware, and sunbrella, I'll have about $800 invested into the project. While not cheap - especially compared to the pre-made biminis you can buy, it is significantly cheaper than a custom made bimini. And I could have saved a couple hundred dollars if I went with aluminum, but I am glad I went stainless after the wind storm we had last night.

How did both of you get in the truck after the frame was attached to it? Dukes of Hazzard style? lol

Any new tools, Al??

The driver's door was unobstructed, so we both got in that way. The bow sides went across the hood and in the bed... the bow tops were along the passenger side.

No, it saddens me to say that no new tools (at least yet).

This won't be like the guy who built a boat in his basement, and then couldn't get it out, will it?

I like your Beverly Hillbilly's transport technique.

I hope not - but its close.

Continuing on...

A bit of tape, and a couple of Pony type clamps and plastic material is laid out to make a pattern. Sailrite has a recommended method which uses tape without the need for the Pony clamps. But the neophyte I am required me to use a couple to get everything right.



Bit I did make an improvement to the pattern making procedure. After laying out the pattern, you are supposed to use a ruler and mark out a 1/2" seam allowance on both front and rear edges.

I found that by using 1/2" strapping tape, I can not only get the proper seam allowance, but the tape itself tends to smooth out the marks, and also provides a better edge for marking.



Well now I am done until the UPS truck comes by with the remainder of my items.

Al - Nice job so far. I'm thinking of having a very wide (side to side) but small (front to back ) bimini made next year for the cockpit. i'm hoping to provide some shade from the sliding door to about half way into the cockpit. more an awning than a bimini, really. i've seen some on a few sport fishes with a cutout for the bridge ladder. btw, i bought one of the ready made bimini's for the bridge last year and removed it at the end of the season. before i could transport it home, the boat got shrink wrapped and i couldn't get it out. got a few mildew stains now. consider taking yours home for the winter.

I inside cold store the boat without shrink wrap on it. The other bimini on the flybridge sits folded without any mildew issues.

I think its the shrink wrap that causes the mildew problem.

For the few boats our marina shrink wraps - and stored outside, they like to take the stuff off at the first hint of spring.

Apparently they feel that the raising and falling spring temperatures is what causes a lot of mildew problems. I don't know for sure as I have never used shrink wrap.

On another note, we always buy several jars of Damp Rid that we put inside of the boat just before winter storage. We place them in the sinks so if they get spilled, no harm.

They go into the boat dry, but they come out of the boat filled with water.

Damp Rid

OK, enough of this winter storage talk - back to boating!

Update.

We're on vacation again this week (its getting to be a habit), so I installed the bimini that I finished. The bimini fastens to the stern rail with these clam-shell thingies.



I made both bimini top and boot. I also, temporary at least, made a set of lateral straps to keep excessive side-to-side movement since the bimini is so wide. This week, I am going to take the boat out, and I'll see how it behaves underway before I decide whether or not I need to keep the straps, convert them to down tubes, or whatever.




Well, the admiral enjoys the bimini. I left some extra material at the leading edge of the top so that I could make a "connector" in the future to attach the bimini to the main enclosure. In this photo, you can see that it looks a bit "floppy" at the front of the bimini. However, if you pull it straight out (as it will be when I make the connector piece), it becomes taut. At this point, I have no plans to make the bimini enclosed, but I want to at least extend the bimini to the main enclosure for a full-length top. Probably next year.

We also found that the bimini keeps the sun from beating down on the rear sliding-glass windows (even though we have a curtain), and in turn, keeps the boat cooler on hot-sunny days.



I "upscaled" the top a bit by using lots of stainless hardware. Other tops I have seen simply cheaply use a strap, maybe with a screw in the side of the bimini to hold it into place. I borrowed this idea from the original top Carver made for the boat.



Same thing for the lower straps. I used hardware rather than simply a web loop. One reason for this is to make it easier to disconnect the straps from the stern rail.




This was my first foray into a bimini top. Along with the experience I gained with the enclosure, I realized:

1. canvas work is not cheap. Any quality job, especially from a custom canvas maker is going to be expensive. If you find an inexpensive quote from a custom maker, they might be cutting corners - either not using quality materials, hardware, or leaving off binding on the corners or other shortcuts.

For the cost, I paid about $900 for just the materials, which included 8yds of Sunbrella, 45ft of stainless tubing, and about 20lbs of stainless hardware.

2. canvas work is very labor intensive. The top was rather difficult to do, and we ended up laying out the bimini, marking and cutting on the dock, as it was the only place with enough room to do so. It took about 8 hours just to make the top, and another 2 for the boot. So I would guess a canvas shop would charge $800~$1,000 for just labor.


The final cost, discounting my labor and depreciation on the sewing machine, was the $900 I paid for the materials. And I have to believe that the job I did ranks with the higher cost estimates, since I used a lot of hardware, binding, and so on, rather than cutting corners on materials. So I probably saved $1,000 for about 2 days work total.

I have had 3 requests just this weekend from dock-mates wanting me to do some custom canvas work, and I suppose that it could turn into a part-time job, it still seems to me a lot of work, and I don't feel I am yet at the point where I would consider my work professional.

But the admiral is happy, so I am happy...

Look good Al!

At least it would be a part time job involving boats.

Looking cool in the shade. Good work.

Looks nice Al!

Looks good, I mean great!

Al, I have a buddy that does airplane interiors. He finds it relaxing and the before and after shots are WOW. Some days he thinks about taking it to the next step and not having a day job.