After writing that I happened to meet a mate who does this kind of
stuff as a business. He was showing me some very pretty "Biminis" for
a catamaran that he has just built with glass over foam. I asked him
of it was gelcoat or paint and he went into details about gelcoat.

He is now building these "bimini" or cockpit covers for Cats one right
after another. He says that they are actually lighter then canvas and
stainless, as less stainless is used. But he now uses gelcoat in
preference to paint as gelcoat is good over polyester and less good
over epoxy so he can build these things using polyester. The gelcoat
hardens "right now" as apposed to " sometime tomorrow " for paint thus
he has less idle time and he can build them faster.

He thins the polyester gelcoat with "Styrene???" and sprays it but did
comment that you didn't want to delay cleaning the gun :-) He
recommends sanding to whatever grade wet or dry paper you can get
1,000, 1500, 2,000, etc. and then buffs. As far as the finish he gets,
some of his stuff has been installed on million dollar boats and the
owners were happy with it:-)

He recommends paint over epoxy and gelcoat over polyester and is
pretty much using it on everything that he does now.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

Bruce,
What does this bimini look like? a canvas and frame bimini or a smooth
hardtop? Sounds very interesting.