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#1
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
I have a five year old Sea Pro 17 ft. center console and want to install
a t-top. My main concern is the added weight and higher center of gravity. The boat is mainly used in St. Johns River at Mayport, FL, and occasionally a few miles offshore when the ocean is flat. Any of you experts have comparable experiences and advice? |
#2
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:53:17 -0500, "Lu Powell"
wrote: I have a five year old Sea Pro 17 ft. center console and want to install a t-top. My main concern is the added weight and higher center of gravity. The boat is mainly used in St. Johns River at Mayport, FL, and occasionally a few miles offshore when the ocean is flat. Any of you experts have comparable experiences and advice? I just bought an 18'er and had the same question. I went with a bimini. I plan to trailer a lot, and thought the t-top may suffer somewhat. I also plan to do a lot of family boating, where the bimini will be very useful. Yes, it gets in the way of fishing, unless one sticks to the stern. But, I figure I'll wear the Tilley hat someone here talked me into buying for a ridiculous amount of money. (Which was still a lot cheaper than the t-top.) -- John H |
#3
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
Thanks. I have a bimini and hate it.
"John H." wrote in message ... On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:53:17 -0500, "Lu Powell" wrote: I have a five year old Sea Pro 17 ft. center console and want to install a t-top. My main concern is the added weight and higher center of gravity. The boat is mainly used in St. Johns River at Mayport, FL, and occasionally a few miles offshore when the ocean is flat. Any of you experts have comparable experiences and advice? I just bought an 18'er and had the same question. I went with a bimini. I plan to trailer a lot, and thought the t-top may suffer somewhat. I also plan to do a lot of family boating, where the bimini will be very useful. Yes, it gets in the way of fishing, unless one sticks to the stern. But, I figure I'll wear the Tilley hat someone here talked me into buying for a ridiculous amount of money. (Which was still a lot cheaper than the t-top.) -- John H |
#4
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:46:15 -0500, "Lu Powell"
wrote: Thanks. I have a bimini and hate it. "John H." wrote in message .. . On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:53:17 -0500, "Lu Powell" wrote: I have a five year old Sea Pro 17 ft. center console and want to install a t-top. My main concern is the added weight and higher center of gravity. The boat is mainly used in St. Johns River at Mayport, FL, and occasionally a few miles offshore when the ocean is flat. Any of you experts have comparable experiences and advice? I just bought an 18'er and had the same question. I went with a bimini. I plan to trailer a lot, and thought the t-top may suffer somewhat. I also plan to do a lot of family boating, where the bimini will be very useful. Yes, it gets in the way of fishing, unless one sticks to the stern. But, I figure I'll wear the Tilley hat someone here talked me into buying for a ridiculous amount of money. (Which was still a lot cheaper than the t-top.) -- John H I may end up feeling the same way. -- John H |
#5
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:53:17 -0500, "Lu Powell" wrote: I have a five year old Sea Pro 17 ft. center console and want to install a t-top. My main concern is the added weight and higher center of gravity. The boat is mainly used in St. Johns River at Mayport, FL, and occasionally a few miles offshore when the ocean is flat. Any of you experts have comparable experiences and advice? I had an 18' SeaPro CC when I lived in the Jax area, and had a shop out on Atlantic almost next door to the ICW bridge do a nice tee-top for me. The tee-top worked out just fine, but I missed the bimini top I had on a previous small center console boat, because it simply did not provide enough shade on those hot Jax days when you want more shade. Who is the SeaPro dealer in that area these days? It used to be Mayport Marine after the Orange Park Ranger & SeaPro dealership changed hands. You must eat at Singleton's...one of the few restaurants down there I miss. I used to live fishing right off the north jetty there. You could never even guess what you might catch. |
#6
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
[snipped]
"HK" wrote in message . .. I had an 18' SeaPro CC when I lived in the Jax area, and had a shop out on Atlantic almost next door to the ICW bridge do a nice tee-top for me. The tee-top worked out just fine, but I missed the bimini top I had on a previous small center console boat, because it simply did not provide enough shade on those hot Jax days when you want more shade. Who is the SeaPro dealer in that area these days? It used to be Mayport Marine after the Orange Park Ranger & SeaPro dealership changed hands. You must eat at Singleton's...one of the few restaurants down there I miss. I used to live fishing right off the north jetty there. You could never even guess what you might catch. I'm thinking I might use the same shop for the T-top work. It's about 2 miles from my house. Singleton's WAS a great place to eat. Last time we were there, the flies and the heightened prices caused me to change my opinion of the place. Fishing off the north and south jetties is always "like a box of chocolates, you never know...." |
#7
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:20:02 -0500, "Lu Powell"
wrote: [snipped] "HK" wrote in message ... I had an 18' SeaPro CC when I lived in the Jax area, and had a shop out on Atlantic almost next door to the ICW bridge do a nice tee-top for me. The tee-top worked out just fine, but I missed the bimini top I had on a previous small center console boat, because it simply did not provide enough shade on those hot Jax days when you want more shade. Who is the SeaPro dealer in that area these days? It used to be Mayport Marine after the Orange Park Ranger & SeaPro dealership changed hands. You must eat at Singleton's...one of the few restaurants down there I miss. I used to live fishing right off the north jetty there. You could never even guess what you might catch. I'm thinking I might use the same shop for the T-top work. It's about 2 miles from my house. Singleton's WAS a great place to eat. Last time we were there, the flies and the heightened prices caused me to change my opinion of the place. Fishing off the north and south jetties is always "like a box of chocolates, you never know...." I havea T-top on my 20 foot Ranger and wouldn't trade it. Bimini's are fine, but if you are serious about fishing, a T-top is the way to go. Plus you can eek out some extra storage under the T-top for PFD's, ditch kit and the like. Here's a picture. http://www.swsports.org/images/Ranger.JPG The only consideration I would suggest is that you stay away from the cheapie T-tops you see around, on Bass Pro and on the Web - they are basically made out of Schedule 40 tubing, only a little better grade metal - they aren't very sturdy at all. With respect to vertical movement and changing the COG, forget about it- ain't gonna change it enough for you to notice. |
#8
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:20:02 -0500, "Lu Powell" wrote: [snipped] "HK" wrote in message . .. I had an 18' SeaPro CC when I lived in the Jax area, and had a shop out on Atlantic almost next door to the ICW bridge do a nice tee-top for me. The tee-top worked out just fine, but I missed the bimini top I had on a previous small center console boat, because it simply did not provide enough shade on those hot Jax days when you want more shade. Who is the SeaPro dealer in that area these days? It used to be Mayport Marine after the Orange Park Ranger & SeaPro dealership changed hands. You must eat at Singleton's...one of the few restaurants down there I miss. I used to live fishing right off the north jetty there. You could never even guess what you might catch. I'm thinking I might use the same shop for the T-top work. It's about 2 miles from my house. Singleton's WAS a great place to eat. Last time we were there, the flies and the heightened prices caused me to change my opinion of the place. Fishing off the north and south jetties is always "like a box of chocolates, you never know...." I havea T-top on my 20 foot Ranger and wouldn't trade it. Bimini's are fine, but if you are serious about fishing, a T-top is the way to go. Plus you can eek out some extra storage under the T-top for PFD's, ditch kit and the like. Here's a picture. http://www.swsports.org/images/Ranger.JPG The only consideration I would suggest is that you stay away from the cheapie T-tops you see around, on Bass Pro and on the Web - they are basically made out of Schedule 40 tubing, only a little better grade metal - they aren't very sturdy at all. With respect to vertical movement and changing the COG, forget about it- ain't gonna change it enough for you to notice. What is the width of the T-Top in comparison to the width of the boat? I had a T-Top almost as wide as the boat, and for anyone at the helm or passenger side, they had as much shade as would be provided by a bimini. My first runabout has a Bimini that was longer front to back, but would take much more abuse, shaking about while underway. It was a pain to put up and down, so we didn't use it as much. It was a pain to store, or was in the way while folded up, when it was up, the straps always got in the way. Since the kids all wore sunscreen, and really wanted to sit or lay out in the sun, I never missed the additional length a bimini could have provided. JohnH is getting the bimini, because the boat will be also be used a family runabout, but I can't imagine any serious fisherman using a bimini. |
#9
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message ... On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:20:02 -0500, "Lu Powell" wrote: [snipped] "HK" wrote in message m... I had an 18' SeaPro CC when I lived in the Jax area, and had a shop out on Atlantic almost next door to the ICW bridge do a nice tee-top for me. The tee-top worked out just fine, but I missed the bimini top I had on a previous small center console boat, because it simply did not provide enough shade on those hot Jax days when you want more shade. Who is the SeaPro dealer in that area these days? It used to be Mayport Marine after the Orange Park Ranger & SeaPro dealership changed hands. You must eat at Singleton's...one of the few restaurants down there I miss. I used to live fishing right off the north jetty there. You could never even guess what you might catch. I'm thinking I might use the same shop for the T-top work. It's about 2 miles from my house. Singleton's WAS a great place to eat. Last time we were there, the flies and the heightened prices caused me to change my opinion of the place. Fishing off the north and south jetties is always "like a box of chocolates, you never know...." I havea T-top on my 20 foot Ranger and wouldn't trade it. Bimini's are fine, but if you are serious about fishing, a T-top is the way to go. Plus you can eek out some extra storage under the T-top for PFD's, ditch kit and the like. Here's a picture. http://www.swsports.org/images/Ranger.JPG The only consideration I would suggest is that you stay away from the cheapie T-tops you see around, on Bass Pro and on the Web - they are basically made out of Schedule 40 tubing, only a little better grade metal - they aren't very sturdy at all. With respect to vertical movement and changing the COG, forget about it- ain't gonna change it enough for you to notice. Great looking setup. What would the weight be of a t-top similar to that? |
#10
posted to rec.boats
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Boating/T-Top question
On Dec 15, 1:24 am, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote: On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:20:02 -0500, "Lu Powell" wrote: [snipped] "HK" wrote in message ... I had an 18' SeaPro CC when I lived in the Jax area, and had a shop out on Atlantic almost next door to the ICW bridge do a nice tee-top for me. The tee-top worked out just fine, but I missed thebiminitop I had on a previous small center console boat, because it simply did not provide enough shade on those hot Jax days when you want more shade. Who is the SeaPro dealer in that area these days? It used to be Mayport Marine after the Orange Park Ranger & SeaPro dealership changed hands. You must eat at Singleton's...one of the few restaurants down there I miss. I used to live fishing right off the north jetty there. You could never even guess what you might catch. I'm thinking I might use the same shop for the T-top work. It's about 2 miles from my house. Singleton's WAS a great place to eat. Last time we were there, the flies and the heightened prices caused me to change my opinion of the place. Fishing off the north and south jetties is always "like a box of chocolates, you never know...." I havea T-top on my 20 foot Ranger and wouldn't trade it. Bimini's are fine, but if you are serious about fishing, a T-top is the way to go. Plus you can eek out some extra storage under the T-top for PFD's, ditch kit and the like. Here's a picture. http://www.swsports.org/images/Ranger.JPG The only consideration I would suggest is that you stay away from the cheapie T-topsyou see around, on Bass Pro and on the Web - they are basically made out of Schedule 40 tubing, only a little better grade metal - they aren't very sturdy at all. With respect to vertical movement and changing the COG, forget about it- ain't gonna change it enough for you to notice.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - |
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