I sail primarily on a high mountain lake in Colorado where the sun is
especially brutal, so last year I added a bimini to our boat. Though
there are many inconveniences associated with an installed bimini, the
advantages are greatly appreciated. In addition to shade, it also
provides an extended "covered porch" when used with the pop-top canvas
enclosure, allowing sheltered air circulation with the enclosure door
open. As an extra bonus, it's great support for a large tarp when
wanting spacious, full weather protection in the cockpit.
The major disadvantage, as currently installed, is loss of hiking &
walking area on the gunnels between the winches and aft of the cabin.
The bimini is mounted just inside the genoa tracks, forward of the
winches. The side supports then angle slightly inward, and slope
upward, to where they meet up with the cover, which starts just at
the cabin back (is this a clear picture?).
These side supports basically prevent sitting, and cause
inconvenience when walking forward, on the gunnel area underneath.
I'm considering installation of jogs in the bimini support, that would
make them parallel the outer rail from their attachments forward to
the cabin rear, then jog inward at a 90 degree angle. This seems
like it would help clear the underlying gunnel? This may look
strange but will it compromise the strength of the bimini frame? Any
other thoughts on this, or another solution?
Pamela Vana
I have the bimini on a car on the genoa tracks. If stored aft on the
backstays, the mainsheet and the winches would get in the way. If
you find an answer I would love it. I’ve been known to leave it on
the dock some days.
MJM
07 Oct 1998
I too have the bimini mounted on cars attached to the genoa tracks.
We store the top in its zippered boot on top of the cabin. Every
time we sailed this summer in winds 15-18 knots or less we sailed
with the top and bimini up and this gave us a huge shaded
cockpit/cabin area for our average crew size of 5+. If the winds got
higher, we rested the bimini on the lowered pop-top and then dropped
the boom to the lower position and the boat stiffened right up.
While there is some sacrificed space for "butts on the rail"
heeling, this trade-off worked for us.
Dave Scofield
s/v Buygones 1995
07 Oct 1998
Making the bimini wider at the top will not help. It will only add
none to only a few inches at the gunnel. It will also make going
forward more of a problem with it up. Resetting it on the pop-top
works, I just do not like it there because getting in the cabin is
more of a problem when stored there (At least for me and my size).
The bimini on the boom suffer from the fact it will follow the main
sail (good at anchor, bad while sailing). I would think about
adjustable 90 degree to 0 degree fittings that have little teeth and
a setscrew. Use 3, one each side to fold inside poles, and 3 down the
centerline to fold over top (cutting access hole from the bottom into
the pocket), should end up with stored size of 48" x 12" x 12"; will
need a custom storage bag. The down side is setting up will take
longer. The up side is there are now a few places to store it out
of the way.
Think about it, if we cannot find the fittings, a shop might be able
to make them up. Might need few of us to get the run size up, and
the cost down.
MJM
S/V Mistress-97
The bimini is real nice when you're not sailing, keeps the rain and
sun off the cockpit. I'm not satisfied with how it stores when
folded. The bimini top rests on the aft end of the cabin and the
"legs" take up gunnel space where the crew (my wife) would like to
sit when the boat heels. I'm going to try mounting the bimini on
cars that attach to the aft end of the genoa tracks--that way I may
be able to shift the folded unit aft to the stern rail. Then it will
probably be in my way!
What we need is something that folds up and stows under the seats,
so the gunnels are clear. Another engineering project!
Gary Sanford
s/v Raven
After spending several hundred dollars & countless hours of my time in
custom designing & building my bimini room, I may not be completely
unbiased. However, I think my bimini room is better than a combination
of the OEM bimini top & boom room from GBI for the following reasons:
Many pieces of gear on the Rhodes 22 are designed to function in more
than one role. Factory standard examples of this strategy would be the
dining room table & the companionway hatch board. This strategy has the
advantage of providing greater capabilities while saving weight & space.
Assuming the goal is to have both a bimini top & boom room, my design
gives the capabilities of both.
Storage requirements with my bimini room are less because the bimini
top provides the roof & supporting framework for the boom room.
These components all store together rolled up under the bimini top.
They don't interfere with the operation of the bimini top, when
that's all you want & are more quickly deployable for the boom room
when you need it. The only bimini room components which must be
separately stored are the port & starboard side curtains. These
components do not have any rigid pieces/parts, they are just canvas.
Thus, they roll up & store very compactly.
I don't know about the OEM bimini top from GBI, but my bimini top has
standing headroom under it while also allowing for light air sailing
with it up. On a hot day, this makes sailing MUCH more civilized.
Because the bimini top is mounted on swivels on the gunnel, it is
always readily available & quick to set-up. My front & rear roof
extensions deploy quickly from the bimini & don't involve setting up
any other supporting structure. With the pop top & bimini up and the
front & rear roof extensions deployed, you create shaded outdoor
living area from the mast all the way back to the transom. Since the
system is quick & easy to set-up & take-down & already in place on
the front & rear of the bimini top, you are likely to use it more
often than the boom room.
My front roof extension extends from the leading edge of the bimini
top all the way forward to the mast & across the entire width of the
boat from lifeline to lifeline. In use with the canvas pop top
enclosure, my front roof extension acts like the rain fly on a tent to
shed rain overboard. This allows the side windows on the pop top
enclosure & the opening ports on the sides of the cabin to be left open
for ventillation in all but the most driving rain. The downside of my
front roof extension is that it tends to restrict access to the foredeck
because it is so wide.
If all you wanted was a bimini top; then, my bimini room would be
hideously expensive. In mass production, I suspect it would be slightly
more expensive than the current OEM boom room from GBI. Mass produced, my
bimini room would certainly be much cheaper than purchasing both the GBI
bimini top & boom room while offering the capabilities of both at a
significant savings in weight & storage requirements.
We frequently cruise in remote areas. Here in Michigan at certain
times of the year, biting insects like mosquettos, no-see-um gnats, & black
flies can be a problem, especially near water. Being able to weather proof &
bug proof the entire living area is pretty important. The extra storage
area made available with my bimini room design can make a significant
difference in being able to safely carry all the gear required for the
expedition.
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
21 Mar 2000
With a project this involved, you've got to start somewhere. I
selected this particular bimini top to start with because it was
basically the right size. After some calling around, I was satisfied
the basic quality of the material & workmanship was high. I knew I was
going to be using the bimini top & adding the design elements one by one.
That's why I wanted to start with a working bimini.
Why reinvent the wheel or solve a bunch of problems somebody else has
already solved? Also, the price was right. The mass produced bimini
top was cheaper than I could make myself buying the separate fabric &
other pieces/parts. I'd made some careful measurements & drawings.
The 72 inch long, 3 bow bimini top was the largest bimini I was able
to make fit into the available space without bad interferences.
It turns out, my 72 inch long bimini, with the pivot mounted as
described, extends as far aft as the traveller & main sheet geometry
permits. A 96 inch long, 4 bow bimini would have to be mounted 24
inches forward relative to mine & then the leading edge would
interfere with the pop top & boom vang. Note that I also had to
contend with the placement of the port & starboard gates in my
railing, which I wasn't about to move! Thus, I really couldn't move
the bimini top pivots forward. I believed it was possible to have a
bimini top with standing headroom which could still be used for light air
sailing.
However, it's difficult to do a sufficiently accurate drawing that
incorporates all the geometry & all the elements. There are many
potential elements that could screw up & interfere with the boat's
ability to sail with the bimini top up. Originally, I had the bimini
top pivots mounted on the railing uprights on the rear of the port &
starboard side gates. I used a pair of side mount pivots mounted on
Helm FHC-12 rail clamps for this. Using the Helm rail clamps, I could
experiment with different height settings by sliding the clamps up &
down the upright. At any given setting, I could check for
interference by actually sailing the boat. I sailed with the bimini
mounted in this manner for a whole season.
Eventually, I found a height setting which worked pretty well. The
bimini needed to have anti-chafing patches added to the fabric at the
peak in the middle & to the port & starboard rear corners. Once I
was satisfied with the functioning of the bimini top, I could design
the rest of the Bimini Room system. Eventually, I did build a new
frame for the bimini top with legs about 10 inches longer which
pivoted off of gunnel-mounted pivots.
All of this happened while we were living in Arkansas from 1987 - 1990 & I
haven't been able to find the drawing for the final bimini top frame.
It may have gotten lost in the move back to Michigan. Or I may not
have kept it, probably figuring I'd ever need it again. Anyway, the
final height is something like 64 inches. When I get the boat out of
winter storage, I'll have to actually measure the frame to tell you
exactly how tall it is.
The boat cannot be sailed with the 1st stage of the rear roof
extension deployed. The rear roof extension interferes with the main
sheet. A longer bimini would have the same problem.
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
24 Mar 2000
I see in my catalogs it is possible to buy a Bimini frame without any
fabric. If you were starting all over again would you use just a
frame and Custom make all the fabric parts, or start with a standard
frame and standard fabric?
You used a 3-bow 6 foot long Bimini and added an 18" extension
supported by a built-in batten and straps. Do you think that is better than
using a 4-bow 8 foot long Bimini and mounting it 6" forward?
Is the 54" Bimini height the maximum possible? Is it the same for
IMF?
Bill Effros
Let me try to respond to your questions one at a time:
"Biminis must ship in pieces--how small is the package?"
My bimini top came completely assembled - via truck. The trouble is
the center bow of the three bow frame is one piece. This one piece
of tubing is bent into a U as wide as the boat & as tall as the
bimini top. As I recall, the shipping container was something like
96 inches long x 60 inches wide x 12 inches high.
The bimini frame tubing threads thru sleeves which are sewed into the
underside of the bimini top. For extra cost, these sleeves can be
fitted with zippers to make attachment & removal of the bimini fabric
easier. Without the zippers, all the hinge pivots on the frame
tubing must be removed in order to be able to slide the sleeves over
the tubing. There are also tie-down straps & straps which control
the open position of the bows which must be removed, reattached, &
adjusted every time the fabric is removed & reinstalled on the frame.
This is a time consuming procedure which involves many small easy-to-
lose pieces/parts & would not be very much fun to do routinely.
"Do you think a collapsing bimini frame is a viable solution?"
As noted above, you would need a bimini top with zippered sleeves.
There is no reason why the bimini frame could not be designed to
break apart into managable sections. The frame sections would need
to have some sort of positive coupling device so they wouldn't come
apart if the wind got under the bimini top & lifted it slightly.
Some sort of a spring loaded button & hole design would probably work
OK for this.
However, even if you did all this, you would still have about 50
square feet of very stiff bimini fabric + a pile of tubing +
supporting straps & hardware to store somewhere.
"I would like to have a semi-enclosed space where we could sit in the
evening as the temperature drops, and then be able to sleep while
retaining the ability to further enclose it if my wife starts to feel
cold. I would also like more space in the morning if one of us
awakens before the other."
When my family first started overnighting on Dynamic Equilibrium, we
used a 10 foot X 12 foot blue poly tarp draped over the boom & tied
to the railing with parachute cord for a boom tent. This strategy
has several advantages & disadvantages:
+'s:
The blue poly tarp & parachute cord are cheap & available in any
hardware store. For a little more money, you could use a HD nylon or
Sunbrella acrylic tarp which would last a lot longer than blue poly.
At anchor, where the boat tends to point into the wind, the blue poly
tarp is fairly weather proof. At a dock, where the rain might blow
in from the stern, it's not so good.
There is standing headroom along the cockpit centerline.
Set-up/take-down time & trouble are not bad.
The tarp & guy lines all roll up into a nice compact package, so
storage requirements are not bad.
-'s:
The sloping sides mean there is only sitting headroom along the
gunnel. Note that if you got a bimini top & draped the tarp over that,
you would have standing headroom all the way out to the gunnels.
There was a time while I was building my bimini room that I only had
the bimini top, front, & rear roof extensions installed. I had a big
piece of mosquetto netting which I could throw over the boom & the
bimini top to semi bug proof the cockpit. When it rained, I threw a
tarp over the top & secured it in the same manner to semi weather
proof the sides of the cockpit.
The tarp boom tent is not bug proof.
The only usable opening is at the stern, so getting on & off the boat
is not very convienient.
Access to the foredeck is somewhat restricted.
There are no windows. Sitting out in the cockpit under a tarp boom
tent is not as pleasant as you might think. It's dark &, except for
what you can see directly astern, there is no pretty sunset or view
to gaze upon while you unwind from the day. This is where my bimini
room with the bimini top, front & rear roof extensions deployed is
great. The roof keeps the dew off, the sides are open to let the
cooling breezes blow thru. You sit out in the cockpit with your wife
& a drink & watch the sun go down. Ah, how civilized!
Ventillation is poor. It will get incredibly hot under the tarp
during the day.
I'm going to make a confession here. Having to set-up the pop top
canvas & bimini room canvas every time we stop for the night is a
royal PITA. Drying off the canvas in the morning, taking it down, &
stowing it probably adds 30-45 minutes to the get ready to leave
routine. Everytime I see a big boat simply pull up its anchor &
depart while I'm still fooling around stowing stuff away, it makes me
extremely jealous. But, this is the reality of cruising on a small
boat.
You have to be patient & keep your sense of humor. You're out there
enjoying the same water as the big boat while spending 1/4 as much
money or less. You have to keep reminding yourself of the other
advantages of a small boat, like shoal draft, trailerability, ease of
maintenance, etc. You just have to make up your mind that you are
going to be "roughing it", i.e. camping out on the water.
My bimini room is probably close to the best that can be achieved
with current materials & technology in terms of maximum living space &
headroom, ease of getting on & off the boat, minimum storage
requirements (assuming you're willing to put up with a bimini top on
deck), ease of set-up/take-down, maximum light &
visibility while set-up, maximum weather & insect protection, &
minimum maintenance. Yeah, it's expensive, but much cheaper than a
bigger boat!
I've not seen a free standing tent which would work out in the
cockpit. It would be a miracle if you found one that was the right
size & shape, but that doesn't mean it's not out there somewhere. If
you ever find one, let me know.
The only time we ever take the bimini room off is if Daniel & I are
going racing. Why do you feel you'd have to make a decision about
whether to leave the bimini top behind or not?
If you really don't want to have a bimini top; then, I'd go with the
standard boom room from GBI.
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
25 Mar 2000
I face an on-board storage issue that you and other "just pull the
boat right up to the house" sailors don't share. You can make Bimini
decisions on a trip by trip basis. If I don't want to travel with
the Bimini on any given day, I've got to figure out where I'm going
to put it and how I'm going to get it there.
Michael suggested some sort of collapsing frame that I pictured as a
variation of the GB pop-top mechanism.
Someone else suggested pitching a small free-standing tent in the
cockpit.
The appeal of the GB boom room is using structural components already
in place, and the ability to stow the rest of it when it's not needed.
Your bimini room offers simplicity of design, mass produced
components,and demonstrated success. Although, I'm sure we would use
it if we had it, we don't need the bimini.
My wife is small and is easily chilled. When we sailed in Florida
and BVI she was cold whenever she had to stay under a bimini. So the
bimini itself is not an important feature for us, and I'm sure there
would be many times we would not want to have it in the cockpit.
What I'm trying to do is make a good thing better. I anticipate we
will sleep on board frequently this summer. There is plenty of room
for both of us in the cabin. We have the Pop-Top enclosure, 2
hatches, and opening side ports. We've slept on board and my wife
loves it. We can close things up if she gets cold at night.
I would like to have a semi-enclosed space where we could sit in the
evening as the temperature drops, and then be able to sleep while
retaining the ability to further enclose it if my wife starts to feel
cold. I would also like more space in the morning if one of us
awakens before the other. Your bimini room seems like the ideal
solution except for the problem of what to do with the bimini when
it's not wanted.
Do you think a collapsing bimini frame is a viable solution?
(Biminis must ship in pieces--how small is the package?) You've seen
a lot of tents, is there some kind of free standing tent that might
work? No one has jumped in to tell us how much they love their GB
Boom Room, so I assume the design has not yet been perfected.
I'm going to do something for this summer. If I don't like how it
turns out, I'll try something else. I'll keep trying until I get it
the way I like it because I know what you have, and what the boys
have described is very close to what I want. Given my criteria are
slightly different from yours, would you continue to believe the most
likely road to success involves starting based on your proven bimini
room concept?
(No need to be modest--I'm sure all the people waiting for their
boats who have been reading this stuff are hoping you'll suggest I
proceed with a solution that doesn't involve Stan's time.)
Bill Effros
25 Mar 2000
Bill, Tom, & Anyone Else Interested In The Bimini Room,
GBI is a business. If enough of you expressed interest in my bimini
room concept, I'm sure Stan could be convinced to build it. Expect to pay
a little more than the standard boom room but less than the combined
price of the standard boom room + bimini top. It's a complicated piece of
boat canvas, by far the most difficult thing I've ever built for the boat.
I certainly don't want to build another. You can expect GBI will need
your boat for a few days to a week for a final fitting. GBI has the
advantage of having plenty of Rhodes 22 around to take measurements from
right up to point of the final fitting on your boat.
As far as royalties or licensing fees, I don't want any. It would be
kind of neat to see a photo of several Rhodes 22 at anchor with their
bimini rooms up.
Your other option would be to take your boat to a local custom canvas
shop. Look in the yellow pages under "Canvas Goods". Any good canvas shop
should be able to take my descriptions + the photos & build you a reasonable
facimile of my bimini room. Your custom made bimini room will be
slightly different than mine because of Dynamic Equilibrium's custom railings
vs. the standard lifelines & stern pulpit most of you probably have on your
boats.
Expect to pay $2000 - $3000 & they will need your boat for two to
three weeks for repeated measurements & fittings with this option. That's a
lot of money for something made of canvas, but you get nearly instant
gratification & don't have to bother Stan. If any of you ever go this
route, it would help me in negotiations with my insurance agent to have
an estimate of a fair market value of the bimini room. My agent & I
couldn't agree & we finally ended up assigning the combined price of the
standard boom room + the bimini top to it. I would love to know a
realistic valuation for my work.
Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
25 Mar 2000
Thanks, Roger,
You've given me plenty to chew on.
This is a topic that has interested me since I first decided to buy
the Rhodes, but I've never before felt I really understood the issues.
I will be proceeding with an evolving bimini room design. Cost is
not a driving factor, so if you think of other tips like zippered
sleeves, please pass them along. Elegance interests me. That's why
I love my boat.
When my wife and I were first married we bought a VW van with an
enormous sunroof (not the camper) and drove it all over the country,
moving around ammunition boxes containing our belongings and pieces
of plywood to change the configuration according to need. We put a
large piece of mosquito netting over the sunroof opening and slept
under the stars, inside the van. It was a carefree time. Gas cost 25
cents a gallon. We cooked our own food. Everything else was free.
The Rhodes is just like that van. Whenever we start moving stuff
from one place to another we can't help but think back to that trip.
It's a feeling we always remembered, but never thought we would be
able to re-evoke.
The bimini room will be the frosting on the cake. I'll let you know
how it goes.
Bill Effros
26 Mar 2000
Although I'm sure GB's boom room is great, we're trying other
homemade options to minimize weight and storage size. We do have GB's
wonderful canvas pop-top enclosure (it's a must in my opinion). However,
this is much smaller in size than the canvas boom room, and it's still
enough to 'wrestle'.
Before our bimini, we used the tarp-over-the-boom technique. This
did not provide comfortable seating, as the angled sides didn't
provide a wide 'roof', and we'd have to lean forward or hunch when
seated in the cockpit.
The second year, we added a bimini and we're very happy with this
feature. It's convenient to use, and provides shade and weather protection
without having to use the boom for support (so the sails can still be up).
An additional bonus, has been that this bimini provides a great
support for the large nylon tarp cockpit enclosure. Bungeed down to
the outer gunnels, it keeps us quite dry in extreme rainstorms. This
tarp stores very compactly in a 12" x 4" roll.
Anyway, for our new/improved cockpit enclosure, I'm just trying to
expand on the advantages of utilizing the nice bimini support
structrure we already have, and keeping the weight and size down
(Trying to cooperate, as Alex thinks BlewDaze already has too much
stuff onboard). The tent I bought to convert will not eigh much,
and will store in a small roll. Hope my experiment is successful!
Regards, Pamela
13 Feb 2001
Maybe everyone else is accustomed to higher quality than I, but we
had a Bimini made at a local awning company for $125. I had them cut a
piece of good quality SunBrella fabric (the usual marine blue) 6 ft. x 9 ft.,
with 2-inch sleeves going in the 6 foot direction every three feet and at
each end (four sleeves in all). I had them put grommets at the corners and at
the ends of the sleeves and one in the middle of each six-foot end (10
grommets in all). I put some one-inch PVC pipe in the 6-foot sleeves, laid
the entire thing over the boom, put some tie-downs at the grommets to tie it
down, with a tie-down at the mast and at the foot of the boom -- et voila! A
relatively inexpensive, pretty good-looking bimini, that stows easily, sets up
in a minute and you don't have to travel to North Carolina to pick it up.
It's not fancy, but it's good enough for us.
Dana LeTendre
Joplin, MO
31 May 2001
It would depend a bit on your bimini, but if it's like ours, you have no
worries about keeping the boom up with the topping lift. You will be
free to sail under the bimini with only a few issues.
1. you won't be able to easily see your mast top wind indicator. You
should have wind indicators attached to the shrouds. IE colored yarn or
Davis ribbons.
2. When the wind pipes up into the high teens and above, you will want
to drop and stow the bimini to protect it. We have sailed with winds in
the 20's with the bimini up, but it was not planned. The wind just snuck
up from zero to howling. The bimini can get in the way during heavier
winds.
3. Boarding and leaving the boat requires a bit more manuvering. Not a
really big deal, but be aware of it. We disconnect one of the forward
straps when dockside.
4. It's important to keep your drink in the shade since you went tot he
trouble of putting the bimini. It's just plain cool to sail along in the
shade on a hot day and hoist your drink in salute to the open cockpit
boat you just went by. You will go by a few boats. It's improtant to
look good when sailing the Rhodes.
Alex Bell
02 Feb 2002
