I have not made my mind up yet Patrick.

At this point, its a hobby; something I enjoy doing. Throughout all of my life, I have always had this need to be creative - always building something; maybe because being left-handed, I am working the right-brain.

But if it becomes a business, it is often no longer fun, especially since the housekeeping part of the business begins to take away from the "real" work.

But I retire next year (47 weeks GFC), and I have been thinking about a part-time job; you know, after the "newness" of retirement wears off.

I want to do some more writing, but I am not sure that will be enough to keep me busy.

Al...how much does it wobble while up on plane or in some rough seas? Mine was made out of all stainless and well and I think the weight of the bimini actually makes it wobble more than an aluminum one. I need to find a solution to this.

Did you bend your tubing or did you buy it already bent?

Now how did he know I was going to ask that question, Capn?

-to lazy to go back and reread the thread, 2suns

Al is very precise when he explains a project. You just have to look a little sometimes.

Doggg, on the rear-most bow, I put straps from the sides to the center to keep it from wobbling from side-to-side. That seemed to help enough.

Al...have you done any real world testing? What was Lake Michigan like this weekend when you took the boat out? I am just asking as I think I could modify what you did to work for my bimini.

Doggg, there is still some unknown territory here.

I did not get all of the canvas finished until Sunday (when I finished the boot), so I did not get much of a chance to do a lot of testing over the weekend.

We plan on taking the boat out tomorrow, and I want to test the bimini with the top folded and booted, and with the top deployed, and at different speeds.

But when I installed it, it wobbled quite a bit. When I put the straps on, it helped a lot.

I'm thinking I can also exchange the straps for rigid tubes if I need more support.

In the worst-case scenario, I can lay the tubes completely down on the stern rail, and still have enough room to access the swim platform. But I don't think that will be necessary.

I think the real issue though is that all of the bimini tops I have had seem to be quite floppy unless some of the curtains are installed. The curtains seem to help as much as anything for rigidity.

But I also plan on making a short connector piece to zipper from the front top piece to extend the top to the flybridge. I am sure that will help in the stability.

Very nice work and informative write-up, Al.

Thanks for posting another great project Al
As usual, you never miss a detail.

Well, you are the most professional non-professional I know... if that makes sense

Understood Al...please post a full report over the weekend after you take the boat out and see how the bimini does.

Doggg;

We went out today as we are on vacation. Got a good chance to try it out in rough weather. We were in 2~3 ft'ers, we went both directions (head and following seas), and around 20 to 22mph.

Before I did, I added another brace, and I think this will replace the straps.



You can see the one I made here. I used a 1ft piece of stainless tubing, because; well thats all I had. This is on the Starboard side. On the Port side, where the entry steps are, the piece can only be about a foot long anyway. The photo doesn't show it well, but the 1ft brace turns 90 degrees in.

I had some hardware left over, but I had to buy two end caps. West Marine wanted $20 each for stainless end caps, which is crazy. But they had nylon ones, so I bought a pair for $7. I can get those end caps from Sailrite at 1/3rd the price.

So I am going to remove the aft straps and add another 1ft brace on the Port side after I order the needed parts from Sailrite.

I have to say, even at the 1ft level, the rigid braces helped much more than the straps. There was no side-to-side motion at all when running the boat.

One thing I also did is that the hardware is a bit loose where the end pieces fit into the T-fittings, or whatever they are called. I took some duct tape (its all I had handy), and made a shim of sorts for the screws, and that helped a lot to tighten everything up as well.

I think I will look for some nylon or maybe tubular brass and try to shim each connection that doesn't normally move (i.e. everything but the two bows).



You can see here (I didn't have the Port brace on yet), due to how the stern rail turns into a ladder rail, the brace can only be about a foot long. But even with just one brace, it sure tightened the top up.

I didn't even try to "boot" the bimini as it rode quite well as it was. But I will caveat that the aft bimini is behind the flybridge (although it is about 1ft wider on each side), so I don't get alot of air to ruffle the bimini.

The only issue is the design of the front nylon straps is not as good as it needs to be (they won't stay tightened), so I'll need to rework those a bit. No problem, I just need to re-sew the end pieces with a different tightening mechanism.

My bimini is so heavy that I do not think the straps will help. I should just add an additional pole support but will need to find something to bend it with.

Does Sailrite sell just the tubing?

Yep, $4.50 per ft. if I recall. Although they don't advertise it, they do have some bending capability, and if they can ship it, I bet they might bend if for you if you ask them.

I also like these struts that they make (kit). They provide a rigid mechanism that allows you to remove the front straps. I know this won't help for your problem, but I thought I'd mention it as it is a cool idea.

We have found that the frontstraps are a bit in the way on our boat when we go forward, so we might eventually add them.


Bimini Struts