I didn't get to see the photo (881K of it!) but I'll let it download (dialup
hell) when I'm finished here...
I attended a seminar with Pam Wall, the cruiser specialist at West Marine, a
multi-circumnavigator (with kids, yet!), at the Seven Seas Cruising
Association meeting in Melbourne last November, and awnings were one of her
presentation points.
She asserts, and I'd agree, that if it takes you more than 5 minutes to
deploy or stow, you'll not use it. We're currently wrestling with how to
design ours with that parameter in mind.
Second, for the ends, she strongly recommends furler foil, having tried
everything else you can imagine, unsuccessfully. In the middle, she uses
round sail batten, as it will hold the shape, but doesn't need the rigidity
to keep the ends squared off as the foils will.
In their case, an aft cockpit, they stow it on top of the bimini, at the aft
bow. They use a flattish, rounded top, rather than tent, style, which
allows them to simply roll it up. Yes, it hangs out over the side of the
bimini - but, as most circumnavigators do, function is more important than
fashion. So, deployment is simply unrolling it, and fastening the
three-legged hoist to their halyard, tying off the sides as appropriate,
and, later, as the sun requires, perhaps hanging the screens. Getting ready
to sail is a matter of untying the side lines, dropping and retrieving the
halyard, rolling it backward on the boom and when it gets there, the bimini,
and tying the bundle, and off they go.
Our center cockpit represents much more of a challenge, what with the
topping lift (a cable to a single-pulley advantage, unfortunately, as it
would be lovely to use it for the hoist! - if it were an overhead lift) -
which would have to be either dropped, which requires some climbing as it's
not reachable otherwise, or pulled forward - and ditto the lazy jacks
(though those are routinely carried forward to sail), the backstay several
feet in front of the arch, and the HF antenna whip right in the middle of
the arch, secured to the frame of our solar panels (I doubt the whip would
appreciate the weight - as big as our boat is, perhaps 50 or more pounds of
Sunbrella and furler foil/other batten - hanging down on it), the actual
likely stowage and stern anchor point.
You can see pix of our installation (not the awning - we've not yet done it
due to our design challenges) of solar and wind and dinghy, if those arch
solutions might interest you, by clicking the url in the sig, going to the
"home" at the top of the page, and then to the "M46Projects" folder, which
will take you to our refit pix, many of the early ones yet not uploaded.
Creative types here are solicited to review our setup for ideas on how to
make a 5-minute deploy/takedown awning for our installation. The whip, the
biggest impediment, is not yet mounted, so could possibly be relocated,
though I don't know where, and I don't want to go to backstay antenna, which
would solve that part of the problem. However, we still would have to deal
with the backstay (can't roll it back with it there)
As to getting the material, there's lots of places where you can buy
Sunbrella. I don't know what the minimums are to get a commercial price,
but Glen Raven Mills sells direct, as well as their many distributors. If
you're prepared to do the sewing, it's pretty straightforward. Otherwise,
any canvas shop should be able to make it up for you, albeit at a hugely
more expensive price (gotta pay the overhead, plus the retail on the
material).
Hope this helped...
L8R
Skip, in rehab so I can go back to refit!
--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
"Thomas Wentworth" wrote in message
news:1yizf.8110$Bn4.3049@trndny08...
Where do you carry your dinghy? On the cabin top? Where is a good place
to store the small outboard that goes with the dinghy?
Any thoughts on how someone can expand their storage space on a 32'
sailboat? Any tricks of the trade? Any neat ideas?
Any thoughts on setting up tent like covers over the cockpit when in port?
How? Where to get the material?
Electricty generators? What type? Where to mount? Wind or Sun? How do
you wire? Is the wire always there once on?