Saturday, August 2, 2014

Aesthetic advice needed....

OK, I like hard tops and think they work well on a Whitby. Not everyone's cup of tea, but. I have had this hard top laying around for a number of years and today managed to get a dry fit. I think it looks pretty good fore and aft but it might be too narrow athwartship. I can have it cut down the center and widened by 20 ins or so. Opinions would be appreciated. Please try and ignore the big baulks of wood, they will be replaced by aluminum tubing in due course.

If you are shy you can e-mail your opinion to whitby42 "at" gmail.com







2 comments:

Myron svDiscovery said...

Anything like that that you can stand on/mount solar to/integrate a boom gallows, looks pretty friggin great to me!

Rhys said...

You may wish to have the height slightly less than your full standing height for the following reasons: 1) less windage aloft and it looks better, 2) One rarely stands at full height at the wheel, and if you are, you are standing at the heel of the boat and thus aren't going to be at the full height of the hard bimini, 3) more clearance under the boom can allow panels or rails or things like boat hooks to be secured up there.

I would also suggest you gently camber that bimini so that there is the most height on the centerline. This allows water or even snow to slide off, and also can allow rainwater collection gutters or slots to work, which is something I've seen on hard biminis to augment watermaker or "city" water. Basically, hose goes down inside the SS tubing to a filter (for dust) with external stop cocks straight into a dedicated rainwater tank. This is used for laundry, dishes and washdowns. A side effect is that a camber follows the camber of the deck itself and just looks a lot better. Lastly, cut a 5 x 14" doggable hatch in line with the helm and the mast top so you can easily see the Windex, nav lights and main "ticklers" to aid your helming and trimming. Otherwise, you'll be ducking under and out to see what's happening. A side benefit is that you can get a breeze on your head with such a hatch. Hope this helps.