Design suggestions please for very large bimini, Materials and supports

[pbmaise]

Hi Pelagic,
Thank you for the suggestions. My vessel is now serving a second life as a commercial vessel carrying 60 passengers at a time. Therefore, we are based either at a dock or yacht club. So while I would love to be greener and use solar panels, I am attached to shore power unless out with passengers. When I am with passengers, alas, it is not sailing. The engine is running and able to power everything I need using the alternator.

If my design kind of looks like a concert hall...there is a good reason. The manufacturers that make these arched aluminum frames make most of them for outdoor concert venues. The nice thing is they are designed to be portable and easy to setup. Therefore, converting the vessel with this giant cover will be a relatively painless process. Well...the pain comes from taking off a completely fine rotating mast, boom, and matching sails that are in perfect working order.

PS It was a pretty neat trick the way you got a backstay right into a panel without cutting a huge slot in it.

[Tupaia]

I see the purpose of you bimini but there are sometimes very strong winds in your area, as much as 60 knots be it for short duration. We certainly experienced this is Kuah a few years ago. They occur unexpectedly in otherwise benign conditions.



Google "langkawi strong wind" and you will see many instances.

[psk125]

Your "Bimini" seems to be about 10 times the size of Pelagic's. Curving the surfaces will create lift, whenever the wind blows. The structures may work on land because they can be anchored to the ground or (they may not like mentioning this) folded away when the wind picks up. The windage created by this thing will be considerable. It may make your boat difficult or dangerous to maneuver with the existing engines.