Sea Hood: A Little More Canvas Work

 Way back in 2004 when we had Barrett Enclosures in Seattle make new cockpit canvas for Eolian, they produced the dodger as a single, complex piece of canvas consisting of three major pieces, all sewn together:

• The "windshield" portion that provides the forward view,
• the "roof" which covers the space between the first and second bows and provides shelter when the sliding hatch is opened, and
• the sea hood, which covers the sliding hatch, preventing rain and spray (and boarding waves...) from entering the cabin around the sliding hatch.

When I redid all the horizontal cockpit canvas, I made a new roof piece.  To install it, I cut the original roof piece off and made the new roof attach to the top of the windshield with a row of Common Sense fasteners:

 Well now it was time to replace the sea hood portion.  I had two choices for the connection to the windshield, since I had no intention of sewing it directly to the windshield:

• Create a flange on the aft edge of the new sea hood that will lay in front of the windshield.  This would do well at shedding boarding seas.
• Create a flange on the aft edge of the new sea hood that will lay behind (inside) the windshield.  This would do well at shedding rain.

Given that the necessity of shedding rain far, far, far outweighs the need to shed boarding seas (center cockpit boats are great!), I selected Option 2.   And once again, it is attached with a row of Common Sense fasteners. 

 

This arrangement has gotten an acid test with this year's November storms, one after the other, with 50 kt winds - it is working great!

Sea Hood: A Little More Canvas Work

Third And Final Hatch Cover

The first two hatch covers that I built were nearly identical, even sharing two of the three critical dimensions. The final cover, the one that covers our butterfly hatch (called that because when the flaps are open it looks like a perched butterfly, I suppose) is completely different.

This cover has two ends which are vaguely "house" shaped and one long piece that drapes from one side, over the top, and down the other side.  The old cover was in really sad shape - that long piece had shrunk up width-wise from 22" (the width of the hatch) to less than 20", pulling the two end pieces way up.  But I determined that the two end pieces were roughly the correct size and shape, so I disassembled (really easy - the thread was completely rotten) the cover and made a pattern (using Sailrite Duraskrim) from an old end piece.

An end piece pattern is made!

Then, to get the real length of the long center piece (not trusting the shrunken old piece), I simply measured the circumference of the relevant edges of the pattern, allowing an additional 2" for a hem at the bottom of each end.  Then I stitched the whole thing up using my trusty LSZ-1.

Trial fitting

The trial fitting proved satisfactory, so I proceeded with the windows, again using Strataglass.  First it was necessary to layout the location and size of the desired openings, and then add a line 1" away on the outside all the way around to make a "fold-to" mark;  to make a finished edge where the fabric meets the vinyl, I wanted to fold the edge under 1/2" for a hem.

Layout for the windows

After using a hot knife to make the cutouts and the corner notches (to allow the folding under of the hems), the cover lost a lot of its structural integrity - it became very floppy!  I had anticipated this, and so before I made those cutouts, I measured the diagonals from the opening corner marks for future reference.

Floppy!

To make the hems, I pre-creased the edges to the lines and then applied Sailrite's Seamstick basting tape inside the creases to hold the folds in place.  I then made another application of Seamstick to the hems, but left the release paper in place.  I laid the Strataglass over the openings, arranging the canvas so that the Strataglass and canvas were shaped properly...  using those diagonal measurements I took before I made the cutouts.  Then I carefully pulled the release tape out from under the Seamstick, fixing the Strataglass to the cloth and stabilizing the shape (the Seamstick not only serves to hold things in place for stitching, but it also serves as a water seal in the hem).  Then a double round of stitching to make it all permanent.  Lather, rinse, repeat for the other window.

Finally, installation of snaps to match the studs on the hatch completed the project.

Done!

Third And Final Hatch Cover

New Hatch Covers, Again

When we assumed responsibility for Eolian way back in 1997, she had covers for the hatches, but they were solid canvas, making it very dark down below - not an ideal situation for a liveaboard.  So we put some clear vinyl into the covers, first stitching it around the perimeter, and then cutting away the canvas that covered the vinyl.  In this way, the shape of the original cover was preserved.  When cutting away the opening, we left a 1/2" allowance which we folded under and stitched down with a second row of stitches.

But the best vinyl we had available to us in Seattle was not the good stuff, and it clouded over in 7 or 8 years, necessitating a replacement.  Which we did.  Again.  With the same crummy vinyl.

Now here we are again.  But this time the problem is bigger.  In addition to the failed vinyl, now the stitching is rotten and the Sunbrella has shrunken up.  But, in the intervening years, I have learned a few things.

Always 100% cloudy down below

Stitching is rotten too...

So now it is time for a full fresh start.  And this time, I am using Strataglass, the top of the line vinyl ($216 for a 54"x110" sheet, and worth every single penny of that.).  It is a three-part lamination, with fluoropolymer outer layers that prevent migration and loss of the plasticizers which make vinyl pliable (without the plasticizers, vinyl is hard...  records are made from unplasticized vinyl).  The fluoropolymer layers also greatly reduce UV degradation.

Some design work was needed...

• What is the size of the hatch?
• How big should the vinyl cutout be?
• How long should the skirt be?
• How big should the bottom hem be (it should be wide enough so the snaps pass thru at least a double layer of fabric)?
• How big should the fold back hem at the vinyl be?
• And finally, where should the seams be located?  This is important to limit the fabric thicknesses to be sewn thru.

I didn't want to make the cover from a big piece of fabric and then cut out the center (following the process that got us here via the original covers), because that would be a huge waste of Sunbrella.  So I cut 4 strips of fabric that satisfied the design criteria above, hemmed them, and stitched them together, making an open square.  (Note that I am using Tenara teflon thread - no polyester thread is suitable for outdoor service.  Polyester thread will last about 5 years outside in the sun; Tenara has a lifetime guarantee.)

It was a little tricky attaching the floppy open square to the vinyl - judicious use of basting tape saved the day.  As a secondary benefit, the basting tape sealed the vinyl to the fabric, making a water-resistant (waterproof?) joint between vinyl and fabric.

Now we need corners

Now to make the corners...  I used the procedure outlined in Jim Grant's book below.  Wrong side up, you place the square over the hatch and crease the corners.  Mark the end points of the creases, which should be the actual outside corners of the hatch, plus a little wiggle room.  Stitch up the corners at a 45° angle from the crease.  In the illustration below, Jim suggested cutting off the triangles; I just stitched them to the sides.

At this point I should make yet another recommendation for Sailrite.  All my canvas work supplies come from them (including my sewing machine!), and they are constantly giving back to the community with hundreds of how-to videos and tutorials.  In fact, this book was written by Jim Grant, who I assume to be part of the Sailrite operation which was created by the Grant family way back in 1969.

Ta Da!

Now to get the full advantage of the new, clear vinyl, I have to clean the plexiglass on the hatch itself - it is dirty and water stained from the rain, etc. that the failed cover let in.

New Hatch Covers, Again

Mizzen Rain Hood

Because our mizzenmast is stepped inside the cockpit, the cockpit enclosure must by necessity allow for the penetration of the mast.  In an attempt to minimize the amount of rainwater that enters the cockpit via the mast, the enclosure has a "sock" that goes up the mast a little ways and is tied around it.  Undoubtedly it stops most rain drainage, but a still significant amount gets into the cockpit, annoyingly to wet our trousers when we sit down.

An improved solution was called for.

The problem, in the rain, no less.

My first attempt was a simple, straight strip of vinyl cloth, mightily stretched around the cross section of the mast.  For obvious reasons, tho I was able to make it work, it failed to meet my aesthetics criteria.  (That is aluminum tape - I have extolled it's virtues before...)

First attempt: sloppy

The first reason a straight strip of vinyl failed to conform easily is that the mizzen mast is not a round cross section.  And the second is that the bottom of the strip had to accommodate a larger diameter than the top, due to the presence of the top seam of the sock.

Mizzenmast cross section

Well, this obviously called for the application of the lesson learned in Making a Mast Boot, with a minor modification.

First, we need to have a tapered hood, smaller at the top than at the bottom in order to accommodate the sock. I decided that tho the sock was about 1/4" thick (1/2", counting both sides), I should make the hood slightly larger so that the sock could easily fit up inside the hood, and to accommodate the place where the ends of the sock overlapped. I chose to make the bottom of the hood 3/8" larger on a side, or 3/4", counting both sides.  So, the tapered section needed to have a diameter of 3.75" at the top, and 4.5" at the bottom.

Next, the mast cross section is not round. Instead, I chose to view it as two half-round sections, joined by two straight sections.

Since I already screwed up one piece of vinyl, I decided to make a paper pattern this time, using freezer paper (eh, it was what we had...). Using the instructions in the mast boot post, I traced out an arc of sufficient length to supply pieces for both the front and rear of the mast. The arc for the rear of the mast I made extra long so that the ends would be able to overlap, and then I cut this piece in two. Then I cut out a couple of straight sections to accommodate the sides of the mast.

When joined together, the pieces looked like this:

From left to right, this is:

• Rear piece, extra long
• Side piece
• Front piece
• Side piece
• Rear piece, extra long

The change in shape seems kind of subtle, but the paper pattern fit the mast perfectly when I tested it.

Taped to back of the vinyl

After testing the pattern, I taped it to the back side of the vinyl, traced its outline and cut it out:

Taa Daa!

And... DONE!

And now because the hood is tapered, if I need to remove the sock I will not need to disturb the hood because I will be able to slide the sock up under the hood when reinstalling it.

Mizzen Rain Hood

Mainsail Stack Pack is Done

This weekend I completed the last portion of the mainsail stack pack sail cover.

Wait... "stack pack" - what's that?

A stack pack is kind of like a basket - it captures the sail when it is dropped and keeps it from going all over the place.  Yes, lazy jacks do that too.  In fact a stack pack uses lazy jacks, but it also serves as a cover for the sail when it is not in use - there is a zipper along the top surface which closes the stack pack over the furled sail.

For our mainsail, the stack pack is 18' long - much, much too big to do the fabric lay out inside the boat - I did it on the finger pier next to us.  Because of the height of the sail when furled, the fabric wasn't wide enough so I had to splice a panel at the forward upper end of each side.  Somehow I managed to not take any pictures of the process.

Needs Viagra

When the sewing was completed, it needed to be fitted to the sail and boom.  This turned out to be a non-trivial task.  There is a lot of fabric, the sail is heavy, and there is lots of opportunity to get the straps that go under the sail hooked up to the wrong places.  It took me most of an entire afternoon to get to the point in this picture.

Next the lazy jacks needed to be disconnected from the boom and attached to the sail cover, and adjusted so that the (PVC pipe) battens formed a pleasant curve.  This required a ladder.

Finally, a piece of canvas (lined with sailcloth for added stiffness) needed to be cut to serve as the front cover.

Front cover pattern

I picked a day when it was sunny, warm, and calm (a rare event!) to make the pattern using Sailrite's Duraskrim (highly recommended!  In fact, Sailrite is highly recommended...)

Long time coming - done!

Then a morning of stitching on the Sailrite LSZ-1 produced the product.  Looks pretty sharp!  The stack pack also eliminates the 1-hour long procedure of reinstalling the old sail cover over the sail after arriving at the dock, and eliminates storage of that cover down below while we are off the dock... hooray!

Next on the agenda is a new cover for the staysail - the old one has shrunken to where it can't be made up over the sail anymore.

Mainsail Stack Pack is Done

Dodger? Why Not?

If you take a walk down any given dock here in the PNW, you will notice that virtually all the sailboats over about 30 feet long will have dodgers (except racing boats of course, but they are a different breed).  And except for a few obviously home-made ones, they are constructed of stainless tubing and canvas.

Have you asked yourself, "Why is this?"  I have.

They are made from stainless tubing and canvas because that is what the aftermarket can most easily produce to custom fit the broad variety of boats.  But these dodgers are not particularly sturdy and the canvas ages out over a decade or so.  And they are all add-ons, and they look it.

Why are these apparently universally desirable items left to the aftermarket to produce?  Why don't the boat manufacturers produce boats with designed-in, molded-in fiberglass dodgers?  If sailboats were cars, the auto manufacturers would be selling them without windshields.  And the aftermarket would be producing vinyl windshields that slowly decayed in the weather.

Question to my readers:  I have been in other parts of the coastal US but wasn't paying attention to the dodger issue.  Is this a universal trend in both temperate and tropical climates?  (I am virtually certain that all ocean-going cruising sailboats have dodgers.)

So. here's the challenge that I issue to Catalina, Hunter, Beneteau, Jeanneau, Morris, Hinkley, etc:

Design and produce sailboat decks with graceful, proportional, integral, fiberglass dodgers.  Dodgers that don't look like clumsy add-ons.

If not on all the boats you sell, then at least offer dodgers as an option.  If you don't try to price gouge on the dodger option, I think you will see that almost all the boats you sell will be ordered with the dodger option.

Come on.  I dare you.

---

Here's an example that anchored next to us today...  Doesn't that look nice?

Dodger? Why Not?

Actualization

As with many projects, the design and planning stages take longer than the actual execution.  Making a new sail cover for Eolian's mizzen was one of those projects.  I started thinking about this last summer, while hanging on the mizzen boom by one arm, way out past the stern rail, making up the fasteners on the far end of the sail cover.  I have been doing this acrobatic act for 20 years, but lately my shoulders have started to bother me, telling me that this process was going to have to change.  

Well finally last week everything came together and I was able to spend the time to put the plans and design to the test: actual sewing.

You really want to use a hot knife for this...

I unrolled the Sunbrella on the dock, laid out the pieces using a chalk line, and cut them out using my brand new, handy-dandy hot knife (you really want to use a hot knife for this work because it seals the edges of the cut, preventing unraveling).  The only tricky part of the layout was the placement of the cut outs on the side pieces for the lazy jacks.  To get these right, I tied the lazy jack lines to the boom at their design locations, and then stretched a tape measure along the diagonal that the top of the sail cover will make, taking the measurements where the diagonal intersected the jack lines.

Then the depth of the cut outs needed to be established.  I wanted them to be just deep enough so that the top of the cut out, which will be the bottom once the stitching to make the batten pocket is completed, would be just above that seam in the finished product.  Here's the detail on that:  I had determined that a 4.5" circumference would make a batten pocket large enough to accommodate the 3/4" schedule 40 PVC pipe that I was going to use as battens.  Adding a 1/2" seam allowance, I struck a "fold-to" line 5" away from the top edge of the side piece.  Then I laid out the cut outs so that their ends were 1/2" (seam allowance) + 3/8" (allowing for the edging to be applied to the cut outs) = 7/8" from the fold-to line.

The rest was just sewing.  The cover is just shy of 12 feet long, and there is no place inside Eolian to stretch it all the way out.  But sewing it over the saloon table worked out OK.

I mentioned that I used 3/4" sched 40 PVC pipe for the battens (the gray kind, rated for outdoor use).  PVC pipe comes in 10 foot lengths; the sail cover is just shy of 12 feet long...  a splice was necessary.  I didn't want to use a coupling, since that would make a lump that would make feeding the battens into the pockets difficult.  It turns out that 1/2" sched 40 pipe has an OD just slightly larger than the ID of 3/4" pipe.  So I bought a short length of 1/2" pipe, cut two 12" lengths, a slit one side of each piece lengthwise on my little table saw.  That 1/8" kerf provided just the right amount of clearance to allow the 1/2" pipe to telescope into the 3/4".  Assembling with pipe dope gave me a smooth splice.

Almost done...

I added ties that go under the sail using black Sunbrella webbing and Common Sense fasteners (not visible in this picture - they're on the other side). 

The top zipper would be impossible to operate if its aft end were not stabilized - a short strap there is seized to the topping lift line.  The finishing touch is a tiny block seized to the topping lift line just above the zipper seizing - and a 1/8" line loop routed thru the block and tied to the zipper pull allows the zipper to be operated while standing on the deck, not hanging over the rail.  Doing this work was interesting...  I had to swing the boom out over the dock and stand on top of a ladder to reach the aft end of the boom.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with closing off the aft end - I think I'll do nothing - the opening is not large enough to bother with. 

I still need to make a front panel that wraps around the mast - the zippers that will attach it to the sail cover are already installed on the sail cover.

And I haven't yet cut the lazy jack lines to length - I think I am going to fiddle with them a little more - I want to see how things settle in with some use.

Previous post in this series

Actualization

Still Thinking...

Design notes

For some reason which is obscure to me,when I am designing something, all my ideas and calculations end up on sticky notes.  This pile is right next to the laptop that I am typing on, right now.  Every design idea I have had on the new mizzen stack-pack is in that pile.  Scary, really.

But sticky notes are not the only tool I use.  For the layout on the fabric (and determining, therefore, how much fabric to order), I used LibreOffice's draw tool, with a scale of 1" = 1':

The order to Sailrite has been made (7 yd of the 46" wide Erin Green fabric, plus a whole bunch of notions: zippers, fasteners, etc). 

And delivered.

Now all I need to get going is weather decent enough to go out and lay out the cuts on the fabric... out on the dock.  Can't do it inside - the panels are 12 feet long.

Waiting for spring...

Still Thinking...

Stack Pack, Step I: Thinking

 It's cold outside.

Eolian sits in her slip, double-tied and with our additional "winter fenders" as prevention against the winter storms, with temperatures in the 20's, 30's and 40's and winds the same.  It is a time for dreaming, for planning.  (Well, except for the occasional repair, like the lazarette drainage problem which I'll write about some time...).

So what am I thinking about?  I'm designing, in my head, a stack pack sail cover for our mizzen.  I like to have the whole of a project firmly understood, run thru completely in my head...  before I start.  There are always surprises, but this minimizes them.

Why the sail cover?  First, our existing sail cover is shot.  It will make it thru this winter, but the next one is doubtful.  So some kind of sail cover is called for.  But why a stack pack?  I assure you, this not a fashion statement - there is a sound design reason.  Eolian's mizzen boom extends well beyond the stern rail:

Can you imagine putting on a conventional sail cover?  How would you do it?  Well, what this 69-year old man has to do is stand on the stern rail, wrap his right arm over the boom, and with only his left hand reach waaay out there to the end of the boom and single-handedly make up the three Common Sense fasteners on the cover at the end of the boom.  I haven't fallen in the water yet.  Yet.  But my right shoulder has been giving me some trouble of late, and so I can see the end of this procedure coming...  A stack pack solves the "dangling old man" problem.

A stack pack is supported by lazy jacks, which I installed last fall as the first step in this process.  This brings us to the first design issue:  how to actually support the cover with the lazy jack lines.  You might think that this was a "solved" problem.  Not so, by any means.  A walk down E dock showed this:

1. Lazy jacks attached to short straps sewn to the cover

2. Lazy jacks attached directly to the batten thru a grommet in the cover.  Note that there is no provision for adjustment of the lazy jack leg length

3. Openings cut in the batten support tube and lazy jacks tied to the batten

4. Lazy jacks attached to full-length straps sewn to the cover

All of these sail covers were professionally made; all are different.  In each case, I find something that is objectionable:

• Two sail covers, examples 1 and 4, have the jack lines attach to straps;  the batten provides no vertical support.  Consequently the cover "drapes" around the straps.  Example 4 provides far better support for the cover fabric than does example 1.
• Example 2 has the jack lines supporting the batten directly, but because of the single grommet hole, there is only a line entry.  I conclude that the line is terminated on the batten internally.  That must mean that there is no provision for adjustment of the jack line lengths.
• Example 3 also has the jack line support going directly to the batten.  In this case, the lines are tied around the batten which gives good shape to the cover (as in example 2).  However, all jack lines have a forward component to their pull.  As you can see, this has caused the attachment to slide forward against the opening of the fabric and will eventually cause a chafing problem there.

I have decided to use a variation of example 3.  In my case, I will drill a hole in the batten (sched 40 PVC pipe), and pass the jack line end thru that hole.  This fixes its location on the batten and yet provides for adjustment of the jack line length.

In order to make those openings in the cover to admit the jack lines, I will make the cover sides of two pieces of fabric: a side and a top.  If it were a single piece, sewn to make a loop or pocket for the batten (as for example, in the Sailrite design), cutting and finishing the openings out in the middle of a large piece of fabric would be very difficult.  In addition, if the top edge of the sail cover is to have any curve at all (a curved sheer is always more graceful than a straight one...), then the side of the cover and the top must be made of two separate pieces of fabric.

I think I have the seaming details worked out:

• Cut out the fabric pieces, and then for each side of the cover:
• Cut out the jack line openings in the top edge of the side piece.
• Apply finishing binding to the edges of the cut out openings
• Sew the top surface to the side surface at the top edges, wrong sides together
• Make a loop or pocket with the stitched seam folding it back against the side piece, leaving sufficient room to slide in the batten pipe.  Stitch it down.
• Done properly, this should provide lazy jack openings which are finished on all but the bottom edge; the bottom edge is formed by the seam between the side and the top.

See what I mean by "thinking it out?"

OK, now I have to think about the forward and aft ends of the cover and what they will look like...

Stack Pack, Step I: Thinking

A Plea For Help

Eolian is a ketch.  And her mizzen boom extends out considerably beyond the stern rail.  As you might expect, this makes putting the sail cover on the mizzen rather a difficult proposition.

For 19 years I have been standing on the stern bulwark, draping my right arm over the boom and inching my way out until my body is at nearly a 45° angle.  Then, using only my left hand, I have to make up the common sense fasteners at the end of the sail cover.  Not exactly the safest thing I could do.

And now, arthritis in my right shoulder is making that a painful activity as well, as you might imagine.  Combine this with the fact that besides me, the mizzen sail cover is also old and rapidly failing (will it survive the storms of winter?  Who knows?), and well it is obvious that something needs to be done.

It's new sail cover time.

And in the intervening 30 (40?) years since that sail cover was made, a new idea has appeared:  the Stack-pack sail cover.  It really is a new idea, and like all new ideas, there are still some kinks to be worked out in the design, for instance where the cover wraps around the mast.  A walk around the marina will show you that there are multiple ways to create a stack-pack cover, and that standardization has yet to occur.

Flush with my recent success with creating new roof panels for our bimini and dodger, I am going to tackle making a stack-pack cover for our mizzen.  But before I start a project like this, I need to have the whole design in my head.  And I am not there yet.

For me, the critical part of the design is the attachment of the lazy jacks to the cover.  Should there be straps that they tie to?  I've seen several like that, including the custom one that Ullman Sails made for the Sun Deehr 56 across the dock from us.  Wouldn't the design be stronger if the straps somehow wrapped around or supported the battens?  How to actually do that?  Should the batten be at the highest point of the side of the cover? Or down the side a little like on the Ullman cover?  If I support the sail cover with webbing wrapped around the batten, won't it naturally try to be the highest point of the cover?  See, my concept of the stack-pack is that the lazy jacks, the battens and the webbing form a framework, and that the fabric is just a cover for the framework.

Sailrite, my go-to gurus for marine canvas, have a video up covering construction of a stack-pack, but it appears that it was their initial design that they documented in the video.  Their lazy jack attachment was made by burning holes in the fabric and tying the lazy jacks thru them around the batten.  That satisfies my desire to have the lazy jacks support the batten, but seems unnecessarily crude.  And there is nothing to keep the lazy jacks from creeping up along the batten until they are at the upper edge of the burned holes in the fabric, and then pulling on the fabric, making wrinkles.

So.  This is a plea for help. 

I can't start the project until I solve this dilemma.  If anyone of my readers has a stack-pack sail cover that addresses this, or better yet has constructed a sail cover that addresses this, I'd love to see pictures of how it was made, in particular how lazy jack attachment and batten support were done.

Anyone?

A Plea For Help

Bimini Canvas: Cost

In the "last" post (OK, now this one is the last post...) on the bimini canvas renewal, Kelvin asked what the final cost was.  I'm afraid I can't give that because I used some supplies from earlier projects.  But what I can do is to make an estimate on materials costs, based on the Sailrite catalog I have here on board (check the Sailrite website for current prices):

Item	Quantity	Unit Cost	Extended Cost
Sunbrella, Erin Green, 46" wide	10 yd	16.95	169.50
DuraSkrim	10 yd	2.95	29.50
Binding tape, 3/4", Erin Green	80 ft	0.50	40.00
Zipper, #10, 48"	6	7.50	45.00
Zipper, #10, 60"	4	8.70	34.80
Zipper Pull, #10	10	1.70	17.00
Zipper Stop, Stainless	2 packs of 10	2.50	5.00
Common Sense fastener, male	50	0.60	30.00
Common Sense fastener, eyelet	17	0.195	3.32
Rivet	100	0.15	15.00
Seam Stick, 3/8"	1	8.95	8.95
Seam Stick, 1/4"	1	6.95	6.95
TOTAL			$405.02

I also bought some tools that, tho they were used in this project, will be used again in future projects.  I don't know if these should be charged against this project or not (you decide), but you should definitely have these tools to do the work:

Item	Cost
Rivet Setting Tool Kit	89.00
Common Sense Eyelet Hole Punch	69.50

I did not include the cost of the thread because I bought a large spool years ago and have been using it since.  You definitely want the Teflon Tenara thread or equivalent - it will outlast your boat.  Don't settle for polyester thread.

And finally, you need a heavy-duty sewing machine to handle this.  I heartily recommend the Sailrite LS-1 or LSZ-1 (zig zag - if you intend to sew sails).  They are expensive and worth it.  We got ours used for less than half the new cost.


Previous post in this series

Bimini Canvas: Cost

The Third Shoe Has Dropped

Finally, I have completed the last of the three cockpit bimini canvas pieces:  the center section.  This panel is zipped to each of the forward and aft roof panels, meaning that its size is completely dependent on the placement of those two panels; they had to be completed first.

But because the old center panel had to continue in service until the new one was fabricated, the forward and aft panels had to be properly located.  In other words, because I did this work in sections instead of all at once, the new roof duplicated the old completely...

Because the old center panel fit perfectly, rather than pattern the center panel with DuraSkrim I chose to simply roll out some Sunbrella and trace the outline of the old center onto it.  The size is not terribly critical; instead it is the zipper placement that is crucial.  That being the case, I did a lot of measuring and annotating on the old center panel:

Again, placement of the zippers is what controls the fit here.  So I measured outside-tooth to outside-tooth at perhaps a dozen stations along the old panel.  Then, when applying the zippers to the new panel, I duplicated the station locations and ensured that the zippers conformed to the measurements.

I have learned thru this project that zipper position in a lengthwise direction is also critical, especially when there are pairs spanning the length.  To make this work out properly, I followed these steps:

• Locate the centers of both the old and new panels by folding in half, and mark them.
• Install the old center panel, and transfer the center markings to the forward and aft panels.
• Work on one edge at a time, I started with the aft edge.  Install one of the new zipper halves to the aft panel zipper.
• Hold up the new panel, matching the center marks.
• While continuing to hold the panel in place (you may need help here), make match marks on the new zipper half and the center panel an inch or three away from the center.
• Remove the new zipper half from the aft panel.
• Position the new zipper half on the new panel using SeamStick basting tape, matching up the match marks.  Note:  at this point, with no other reference it is not possible to exactly locate the zipper width-wise.  Instead, using another new zipper half on the opposite edge, simply ensure that zipper placement will allow both zippers to fall approximately equally on the fabric.  Exact spacing at the measurement stations will be established when the opposite zipper half is installed.
• After sewing the first zipper half, take the panel out to the cockpit again and zip it up.  Install another new zipper half on the other aft panel zipper.
• Pull the panel firm athwartship, and make match marks on the new zipper half.
• Following the steps above, install the second zipper half.

At this point, zipper installation is half done, with the attachment to the aft panel complete.  Complete the forward zippers in a similar fashion, with these two modifications:

• When establishing the position of the first zipper half, match up the centerline marks as before.  But this time, slide the panel a little port and starboard, watching for wrinkles to form and dissipate.  You are looking for that placement where there are no wrinkles - it may fall when the centerlines are not quite matched up.  Match mark the zipper half and the new panel.
• When sticking the zippers in place with SeamStick, be very, very careful to get the outside-tooth to outside-tooth spacing at the measurement stations the same as on the old panel.

Ta DAAA!

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The Third Shoe Has Dropped

Canvas - Round Two Completed!

Round two of cockpit canvas replacement - the roof section of the dodger - is done!  Here's how it went:

Topstitching the aft tail seam

Having completed the actual construction of the panel, I needed to create the attachment to the "windshield" portion of the dodger. The original canvas had the roof and the windshield sewn together, making a hugely unwieldly thing, almost impossible to handle with all the compound curvature and the easily damaged vinyl.  As I reported last time, I made a design decision:  The new roof panel would be separate, and attach to the windshield via Common Sense fasteners.

So, how to locate those fasteners?  For a taut roof panel, the fasteners need to be in the exact right spot, and further, the eyelets and male portions need to end up in registration with each other.  How to do this?  I solve problems like this as I am falling asleep and letting my subconscious work on them.  This is the procedure I came up with: 

• Mark, on the tuck back tail of the new roof panel the desired location for fasteners - this portion will show in the final installation
• Place the new roof panel in place, carefully aligning the sides, and positioning the front seam on the front surface of the tube, as designed.  You'll note that the old panel seam (built by a professional) missed the tube by as much as an inch in the center.
• Insert T-pins at the marked locations.  By pushing them all the way in, they made a good solid temporary connection because the vinyl in the windshield gripped them, allowing tension to be applied so that wrinkles could be worked out.  Adjust the T-pin locations in the windshield as required (keep the pin locations in the tail as marked since, again, these will show) and reposition as needed for a good fit everywhere.
• Mark exactly the T-pin locations on both the tuck back tail, and the windshield.  To mark the windshield, pull a pin part way out, giving enough room to work under the tail, but keeping the location established.  Since this is all done with the existing canvas all in place, it is easy because the old roof panel is keeping the windshield tensioned and in place.

T-pins for alignment

• Pull the new canvas off
• Punch holes in the windshield using Sailrite's Common Sense punch...  this is the only way to do this, given that 4 layers of Sunbrella and the vinyl need to be cut.  Jane was inside, with a buck made out of a 6" piece of railroad track with a piece of Starboard taped on as the working surface.  Without something to work against, the punch would not have worked.
• Install the eyelets in the windshield.

Holes punched and eyelets installed

• Install the male portions of the fasteners on the tuck back tail of the new canvas.  Getting the male fastener mounting holes in the right place cannot be done by eyeball.  I made myself a jig out of an old blank non-silvered CD, by drilling holes at the correct spacing and then marking the outline of the fastener and horizontal and vertical centerlines.  This can then be held in place on the marked T-pin location and a pen can be used to mark the rivet locations thru the holes in the jig.  (Sailrite?  Are you listening?  You need to sell something like this...)

Homemade drilling jig

• The moment of truth: Test fit.  Will everything work?  In order to get a true assessment, I disconnected the rear of the old canvas from the rear tube and installed the new canvas completely.  Since the old roof canvas was still attached to the windshield, it hung down inside.  Yup, it looked good.

Test fitting

OK, punching the holes in the windshield was a commitment, but not a serious one...  Eventually tho, it was time to make the big jump, and say "I do."  So I cut the old roof panel off of the windshield and voilà, c'est fini!

Done!

And man oh man is it good to see the old faded canvas as a jumbled up pile (and eventually in the dumpster) instead of gracing the cockpit!

Good riddance!

Now there is only one more roof panel to make - the center section.  This is much simpler to construct, being a single panel of cloth with only edging installed.  Ah, but exact sizing and zipper placement are critical for a taut installation.  Gotta think about this...

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Canvas - Round Two Completed!

Canvas, Round Two

First of all, thank you, all of you, for your patience and for your well wishes.  They are very much appreciated!  The neck surgery was to correct a nerve pinch in my cervical spine that was causing me to lose the use of my right hand.  Recovery is proceeding apace.

OK, enough of that.  In the past few days, we had an appearance (sadly brief) of nice spring weather... weather where the following all coincided:

• It wasn't raining
• It was warm
• It wasn't windy

For this year, it was that last item which has been the rarest.  But all three things did indeed happen, and so I got out the DuraSkrim and patterned the forward roof panel on our bimini.  As I did for the rear panel, I patterned right over the existing canvas.  This allowed me to have everything tensioned and in place, so that the replacement panel should fit well.  I hope.

The pattern, before trimming

And glory of glories, the weather held for the next day, which allowed me to use the pattern to cut out the pieces to make the roof panel.  As you can see from the picture above, there simply is not enough room to do this down below on Eolian, out of the weather, making this an outside job.
 

Our existing dodger has the roof panel and the forward panel (the "windshield") attached, making the combination large and unwieldy.  I will not be continuing that design.  Instead, I will use Common Sense fasteners (male on the roof, female on the forward panel) to fasten the panels to each other.

I expect to start sewing on Friday, but I doubt that I will finish this weekend.  Besides doing the sewing, there is the matter of the installation of all those Common Sense fasteners.

[Finally, a brief note to those of you to whom I cryptically mentioned Wood's metal:  that post is coming, it's just not far enough along yet.]

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Canvas, Round Two

A Tale Of Two Tails.

A quick revisitation of this issue, with an illustration.  And then I promise I will shut up about it.

Consider the forward edge of the aft bimini roof panel.  Because I am lazy, I originally made the tail as a hang down tail.  That is, the tail was a long skinny rectangle - easy to cut, and minimal fabric usage.  But because it had no curvature, it did not match the contour of the front edge of the panel.  Consequently, after installation it had a scalloped appearance and made a loose fit to the center panel:

Hang down tail.  Bow is to the left, and new panel is on the right

What is worse, with Eolian moored facing into the weather, when it rained (and oh, does it rain here in the PNW), the wind blew the rain under the edge of the tail and into the cockpit.  In fact the tail acted as a funnel, actually scooping in rain.

Tuck back tail - doesn't that look better?

So I picked all the seams and took apart the front edge of the panel.  And I cut fabric for a new tail, this time a tuck back tail - contoured to match the forward edge of the panel.  The result is gratifying - look how tightly it meets up with the center panel!  The built-in curvature makes the edge of the tail actually press down on the center panel - wind-blown rain is excluded (tested less than an hour after reinstallation... this is the PNW after all).

So far, I cannot think of a situation where I would use a hang down tail.

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A Tale Of Two Tails.

Bimini Renewal: One Third Done

OK, as promised, here is the result.  I am one third done with redoing the bimini and dodger. That is, I have completed the bimini roof (I am excluding the side curtains and the dodger front from consideration at this point in time - the vinyl is still serviceable, and because these surfaces are not horizontal they have not suffered sun damage to the same extent).

I think it came out pretty good. In fact, it looks about as good as the original did when it was new and before shrinkage pulled everything tighter than a drumhead.

So, can you do this yourself?  The answer is yes.  But first, I strongly recommend that you view the following Sailrite video: How to pattern a bimini. There used to be another video on the website that took you thru the process after patterning, but they have apparently taken it down. But if this whets your appetite, then get this DVD and study it, thinking thru each thing that is done, and understanding why it was done.

First, nomenclature.  In the roof panel I made, there are three major piece types:

• The roof panel itself - the largest piece of fabric by far
• The sleeves.  These pieces of fabric form the sleeves which zipper around the tubing at the front and rear of the roof panel.  
• The tails.  These are the narrow strips of fabric that hang down at the front and rear of the roof panel - they serve as the attachment points for the side curtains (at the rear - on mine you can see the rivets holding the Common Sense fasteners) and the center panel (at the front).
• There are also some narrow reinforcing strips that go on the bottom edges of the sides to strengthen the attachment points for the side curtains.

If you decide to tackle this project I have the following recommendations for you:

• Use Tenara Teflon thread.  I can't recommend this strongly enough.  The special "UV resistant" polyester thread will last approximately 5 years (in the PNW - less in the tropics).  The Tenara thread will last indefinitely - far outliving the fabric.
• When sewing, use the basting tape that Sailrite sells.  The stuff you can buy in your local fabric store is designed to wash out and is a far weaker adhesive.  Use 3/8" for most seams and 1/4" for zippers.
• When installing zippers, make sure that they will be covered - that is, protected from the sun.
• Tools - you should buy these tools and consider them part of the cost of the bimini.  Your cost will still be far, far less than what you'd pay for professionally built canvas.
• First and foremost, a walking foot sewing machine.  You just can't do this work with a home sewing machine. I have a Sailrite LSZ-1 and love it.
• A binder of some type for applying bias edging tape
• This nifty tool set for installing male Common Sense fasteners
• This punch for installing Common Sense eyelets
• Please note that my project did not require installation of snaps, Lift The Dot fasteners, etc. so I have not included tools for their installation here.  But if you need these fasteners you should look carefully at the tools that Sailrite offers.
• If you are doing what I did, replacing an existing bimini, you can pattern right over it without removing it.  This allows you to get a better take on where the edges need to be, and saves a lot of labor.  You should apply the seam stick tape directly to the old bimini without an intervening layer of some other kind of tape.  It holds better, and yet can still be removed after the patterning.
• For the panel to install correctly and fit well, it is critical that you consider and think about things like this:
  

  When patterning, the line defining the front and rear seams (where the sleeves and tails attach to the roof panel) should be made, not on the top of the tubing, but rather 90° away on the front (or rear) side of the tube.  Doing it this way makes it simple to attach the other edge of the sleeve.  Magically, you can just smooth the sleeve flat against the roof panel and stitch the zipper where it lays, without making any allowance for the wrap around the tubing whatsoever. I know that doesn't seem right, but it is.  Get out some strips of paper and try it out - I know that I had to in order to convince myself.
  
  If on the other hand you need for the seam to be on top of the tubing (as for example if the seam joins two adjacent roof panels over an intermediate support), then you cannot simply lay the sleeve flat to determine its attachment point to the roof panel.  Instead, lay it flat, mark the edge, and then move it back 1.25 inches (I think...  get out your paper strips and confirm this number - it will depend on the size of your tubing) and attach it there.  Because in this case you do need to account for the wrap around the tubing, and it's a surprisingly large amount.
  
  If you should use a top seam for the forward edge of your roof panel, you will need to make the tail wider by half the diameter of your tubing so that it will extend the desired distance.

• You will face a decision whether to use "hang down" tails or "tuck back" tails.  Hang down tails are just straight rectangular pieces of fabric; tuck back tails are contoured to match the edge of the bimini to which they will be attached.  I initially made mine with the hang down tails, but I was disappointed with the way they, well, hung.  Because they are straight fabric pieces, they do not follow the contour of the bimini - they just look bad.  I made new tuck back tails, ripped out the seams and installed them.  
• When laying out the sleeves or the tuck back tails, the video may encourage you to use the pattern to determine one edge and then laboriously lay out a second line the desired distance away by making a series of markings perpendicular to the original line.  This is unnecessarily tedious.  Instead, lay out the first line using the edge of the pattern, pull the pattern back the desired amount, and lay out the second line, again using the edge of the pattern. 

As you can see, there are two more panels that need to be reconstructed. And that sail cover is looking pretty shabby too...

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Bimini Renewal: One Third Done