Hard Bimini build

[Allied39]

Plan is to knock up a hard bimini on my old rails with water catch ability.

I am hoping to sail up to NY and back in a few weeks so I would like to get it to pre paint stage and throw it aboard for the run up and back to see if there's anything I would like to change / adjust/ manipulate or otherwise improve.

I don't want power in it because I can't ever think of a time when I would have liked a light under my bimini.

I am not planning on putting solar on top because I don't really need any more solar.

I am doing this post for folks that might be thinking of the doing something similar, either with their bimini or for that matter dodger, because my way of doing things work with both.

Iam doing this my way, cause I know how to do it, It's not the only way, there's loads of different ways to do what Iam doing, this just shows "a" way to do it.

Lastly, sorry if the pics are all ass about, Iam better with my hands than my brain and therefore are unable to makum goodum.

The following pics show 2.7 mm ply from home dopey pressed up under the rails which have been covered in thin plastic sheet and taped so clean up after is easy.
The other pics show sheetrock compound in the groove between the ply and rail and also the water catch gutter taking shape.

More rain tomorrow so plan to tape off the mold and lay a few layers of 18oz biax . Epoxy resin. I only use system three epoxy resin....me likum muchly!

I will likely post pics of the progress unless the comments get annoying. Lots of label throwers out there and I find that tiresome.

[Allied39]

Coming along.

Cleaned up the joint compound and painted with latex primer.

Taped the whole mold with packing tape and layed two layers of 18 oz biax over it.

I use packing tape instead of a mold release because the time I used a mold release I was unhappy with the amount of time it took to clean it off the fiberglass that came out of the mold, and that was an 18ft cabin house.

I won't likely get more time on the bimini for a few days.

[NSboatman]

Very cool! So if I understand it correctly, you intend to use the same stainless tubing/support frame, and be able to just clip this fibreglass shell over it?

I like it- simple, strong, clean; and relatively light.

How are you going to retain it on the tubing?

[Allied39]

I'm not decided on that yet.

It won't need much as the biax wraps the tube and does so around the curve of the tube. I need to clean and trim the glass and see.

I was considering knocking up a clamp, but like I say Iam still thinking on that. Either way I dont want to drill into the tube, I don't like doing that.

I have a rainless day today so have priorities elsewhere. Should get time on it tomorrow.

[BugzyCan]

You are using a tube bender I assume? I was thinking of making my own Bimini as well. Prices for already made ones are very high considering how simple they are.

[Allied39]

Thats a long stoty...I will try to make short,

About 12 years ago I was struck in broad daylight while on anchor by a 60ft tourist cat about 40 miles sth of isla mujeres. Some hole, porto morales? I have tried to banish it from memory. The boat boy steering the cat was not aware of the need to look forward.

Anyhow, after getting back to isla and begining to deal with mexicans (trust me I have a much more verbally descriptive , expletive laden version) it became clear that there was no one capable of building a new bow rail to replace the destroyed one. Much blank faces and shoulder shrugging....go figure.

So, make my own, as always. So I built a set of benders and a machine to put a long slow curve in a one inch tube. Curverers (thats what I'll call em). Then built my new bow rail. I figured I may as well build a bimini as well, so I did.

A friend gave me an old blue sunbrella bimini top I fit to my rails, temporary of course!

So here I am 12 or so years later replacing the sunbrella.

Yes you can bend your own rails but you do need to borrow or make a set of benders that wont kink the tube. And curverers too!

Yes, bimini's are expensive considering what thay are.....but that could be said on a very regular basis when discussing marine equipment!

[BugzyCan]

I want to see how your hard top looks on the boat at the end. Amazing so far.

[Allied39]

Had some balsa in the workshop, decided to stiffen up the top by putting on couple of braces.

One pic shows the balsa epoxied in place ready for a 6 inch strip of biax and the other shows after the biax strip is in place.

Next step is to put another Layer of 18 oz biax over the whole bimini. At that point I will strip it off the mold and see how I like it.

[kristjan]

Cool, I used have an Allied 39, a hard dodger would have been an improvement.

[Allied39]

Kristjan....used to have an an allied 39 ? What was her name? Only 11 built and I have been aboard 6 or 7 of them. My girl, Daydream, is hull #3 . She was named Arochar....till she had a fire in the 80's. And a hard dodger is an improvment on any boat.

Got the (likely) last coat of biax on today. I should get some time tomorrow to strip the mold and see what I think.

[kristjan]

Originally Posted by Allied39

Kristjan....used to have an an allied 39 ? What was her name? Only 11 built and I have been aboard 6 or 7 of them. My girl, Daydream, is hull #3 . She was named Arochar....till she had a fire in the 80's. And a hard dodger is an improvment on any boat.

Got the (likely) last coat of biax on today. I should get some time tomorrow to strip the mold and see what I think.

Yours is hull #3? I thought mine was, could be wrong it was a few years ago. Her name was Mistress, which I liked as it was an Allied Mistress. Now we own a Tom Colvin ‘doxy’ design, named...drumroll...Doxy. Not much imagination here.
I bought MISTRESS from a boat yard in Tortola then sold a few months later in Saint Martin, the new owner, five years later, still cruising strong up and down the Caribbean.
Maybe it was hull 2, I’m not really sure.

[Allied39]

Ah, I thought so,

An allied 39 and a mistress are two very different girls.

800 odd Mistress's and Princess"s built by Allied if my knowledge serves correctly, but only 11 39's built.

They built some XL 42's as well, but have never met one.

[Allied39]

Got an hour on the job today. Striped off the mold and popped the binini off the rails. Looks good so far.

Next will be cleaning it up knocking up the drains.

[coopec43]

I am thinking more and more about dodgers but I'm not sure about hard dodgers. What happens if you take green water over the deck and it carries the hard dodger away? How much damage does it do to the deck? I like Riada 11 hard dodger or the one that looks like canvas but is probably epoxied glass cloth over a frame. Photos of my yacht "Helen"under construction and the two different dodgers.


Here are a few more types
https://www.google.com.au/search?biw...oad6a7j8auxJM:

[Discovery 15797]

Originally Posted by coopec43

I am thinking more and more about dodgers but I'm not sure about hard dodgers. What happens if you take green water over the deck and it carries the hard dodger away? How much damage does it do to the deck?

If you take 'green water' over the deck and it washes away a hard dodger...either the dodger was not properly secured...or you have way bigger things to worry about than damage to the deck.