| Bimini
Darrell,
There are a lot of boats on the bay that have the prefit bimini with frame that comes from West Marine. In fact my boat came with that type of bimini. I don't know their whole catalog, but the ones I have seen in the stores are designed for powerboats. These will have two problems. First they may not cover the whole cockpit. That is a matter of personal preference. The second and most important is that many are not designed for sailboats. Because of this they will not have a window to see the mainsail and they will be missing the backstay slot. If you are halfway good with a sewing machine and willing to spend the time both of these issues can be fixed without a too much work. Anyway installing them is easy enough.
The biggest plus for getting one custom made is that it can be designed to make it easier to get into and out of the boat. The off the shelf jobs do not take into consideration where the life lines, gates, etc. are in your particular installation. Finally if you feel up to it the consignment store may have a frame in stock that is wide enough to fit your boat. If it does making the bimini panel is easy enough.
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