Hard top dodger

[Russell]

Worth noting, weight wise, I am estimating I am at about 20 lbs currently (before edge coring). So this is coming out pretty light. Its pretty rigid, but there is still a bit of flex, which the extra edge coring should also take care of. Final weight I think should come in just shy of 30lbs, which is pretty reasonable I think.

[hilbert]

Russell,

In your picture, there appears to be a disturbing image of a person being dissolved in a garbage can of acid. One foot is already gone!

[Russell]

Russell,

In your picture, there appears to be a disturbing image of a person being dissolved in a garbage can of acid. One foot is already gone!

Haha. One of the guys who shares this shop with my friend (who is kindly letting me use it) has a bunch of these cardboard cutout coors light girls hanging in the shop. Thats one of them you see dissolving into the trashcan, I think she is trying to put herself out of her misery.

[hilbert]

I prefer Ginness myself.
I am envious of your having a roofed shop to work in and it is a good friend who will put up with fiberglass dust.

I am particularly interested in seeing how you do the edges.

[Russell]

I prefer Ginness myself.
I am envious of your having a roofed shop to work in and it is a good friend who will put up with fiberglass dust.

I am particularly interested in seeing how you do the edges.

Yes, the shop has been a blessing, having a place to work OFF the boat is huge for me, being a liveaboard for the last 10 years, I do most projects right on the boat which makes living on the boat miserable and working on large projects miserable as well. Plus having access to a full shop of full sized professional quality tools is a dream, I am a kid in a candy store, its really made my summer projects fun rather then tedious. I am trying to bang out my big wish list projects this summer because of it.

[Russell]

I took the unfinished top out to the boat today to start working on patterns for the supports (which will be 1.25" SS tubing). I am happy with the shape of the top, I am going to lower it down about 1 or 2 inches tomorrow from what you see here, its a tad high. I am also going to lop off the aft most arch of the handrails to give me a better spot to mount the forward supports, those parts of the hardrail are pretty useless anyway with a dodger in place.

Big ugly plywood box in the middle is to just hold it up while I make my support mockups. Ignore the general disarray of the the boat, project mode.

[K Chiswell]

Looking great Russell.

I wasn't thinking about a hard dodger, but now I am. Whats one more project on an endless list any way.

Sorry to change the subject, but I've noticed your solar setup in that last photo. What is the total wattage of your solar setup? Are you happy with it?

[Russell]

Looking great Russell.

I wasn't thinking about a hard dodger, but now I am. Whats one more project on an endless list any way.

Sorry to change the subject, but I've noticed your solar setup in that last photo. What is the total wattage of your solar setup? Are you happy with it?

Total wattage is around 450, 4 solar panels, 2 big ones on the bimini (which you see in the photo) and two smaller ones on the arch behind that. I am very happy with it. Fitting solar panels on a sailboat is always tough, you have to get pretty creative if you want a lot of wattage and as always, everything is a compromise. I had my arch made in Trinidad, where it was very affordable (about 1/3 cost it would be for the same in the US), my bimini is actually a rigid frame coming off of the arch, giving me a very solid support for large panels. The downside is I cannot retract my bimini like you could with the more typical folding bow bimini tops, but honestly I never retracted the old bimini anyway, I want shade. I would still like more panels but it wouldnt be practical, I could actually mount a couple on the new dodger top, but the boom shading would hurt output so much that it would hardly be worth it. I will take a photo tomorrow that shows the whole solar setup so you can see it better, I get a lot of compliments on it, the company who fabricated the arch/bimini had never done one like it before, and asked of they could delay putting it on my boat a week so they could put it in their booth at the local marine trade show in Chagaraumas.

[Russell]

Progress has slowed down as I wait for the welder to work on the supports for the dodger. No photos, but I have finished the edge (rounded over with a router then glassed with 2" tape), put a fillet on the inside where the extra thickness of coring meets the thinner middle, to smooth it out. Then a final layer of 4oz cloth over it. After the final glass I put on 4 coats of west system then faired it.

The welder has to cut my tubing using the wood patterns I gave him (some odd angles to match coachroof and curve of the top), which I will then take back to the boat with the feet, and scribe marks on it for the angles i want it welded on at, then he will tack weld them, I will take them back for another dry fit, then final welding. Who knows how long it will take, this is why I like doing all my own work, not relying on the typical marine industry turn around time. He is a great guy though and doent mind helping me save a few bucks. I went and bought my own tubing, pipe actually, they were out of tubing, but 1/8" wall thickness stainless steel, it will be rigid as hell even if a tad heavy, and only $95 for 20 feet of 304 SS (most tubing is 304 as well, 316 would be nice, but I will live with it, all the existing SS on our CDs is 304 anyway). Anyone want some excess? I hardly need half of that 20'!

I picked up the polycarbonate sheet today that will make up the window material and spent this evening tweaking my sewing machine to cope with sewing through it using Tenara thread, definitely pushing my machine beyond its intended limits. Having trouble sourcing the Stamoid material I want to use, the one place i have a wholesale account with does not carry my color, and no retail places carry my color in the weight I want. I might have to use sunbrella instead. Oddly I met the top guy at Stamoid USA earlier this year in the Dismal Swamp as he was moving his own boat north (and his entire canvas was done in a stamoid color that does not even exist on the market!), he told me he would give me his card but the process of going through the locks I think we both forgot about it. Oh well, I can still get my color in the light weight stamoid, so I can at least use it for my window covers even if sunbrella has to be the main fabric of the main panels.

I bought my lights too. Its hard to find outdoor LED marine lights that are not nav lights, especially that can do both red and white. Found a company called Lumitec whos main market is those silly underwater lights sportfish boats use. But they make interior and exterior lights as well and every light they make is underwater rated (even if sitting in a pretty brass housing for the interior), I bought some of their "rail" lights, which are pretty cool in that they come with mounting plates for optionally mounting them flush to tubing as well, so I may put one on my bimini as well. http://www.lumiteclighting.com/ by the way, defender sells them and they are not expensive, especially compared to absurd "marine" LED pricing, my rail lights were about $30 each for waterproof LED.

[Russell]

Finally some progress on the supports for the dodger, the metal fabricator tack welded the feet on them, so I was able to do a dry fit. Now that I have my hole locations determined I can do my overdrilling and filling and finally paint the thing.

Pardon the mess of the boat, still in project mode! Only a couple weeks left before I head south, running out of time with a lot to do.

[Russell]

Finally, paint, the end is in sight. I cant take credit for the painting though, a friend sprayed it for me.

[Jim_B]

Russell - Wow - looks great! I'm following this project with interest as a dodger redo is not too far in my future. Looking forward to details as you sew up the 'glass'. Thanks for sharing.

[Russell]

Finally, after endless rain, I was able to mount the top on the boat. I finished cutting all the makrolon windows today and sewing awning tape onto them(the panels attach to the hardtop with awning track). In the process now of sewing the connection zippers and the skirt. The center makrolon panel folds inward and attaches to the inside on of the top for dodger ventilation (since makrolon cannot be rolled). and each panel can be removed individually as well.

The piece of teak trim on the top doubles as a rain gutter and a hand hold as well as really tying the look of the top into the general CD look.

The end is in sight.

[Russell]

Oh, and I gave up on using Tenera thread unfortunately. Its more delicate then polyester thread and it was shredding passing through the hard polycarbonate. I have successfully sewing with it before just through canvas, but I couldnt tweak my machine "just so" to get it to handle this. Oh well. Next time around in 10 or so years when its time to redo it, I will probably try the glue method of attaching the makrolon to the canvas and sewing everything else with tenera, I had done that last year on a powerboat enclosure using someone elses industrial glue gun, but I really didnt want to spend $400 on the glue gun to do it on my own boat this year.

[Steve Laume]

Russel, you are doing a fine job of this. I will be watching very carefully to see how you address the transition area from the cabin top to the cockpit combing. That little detail makes designing a dodger very difficult. My canvas cover kind of flubbed it's way around the curve and went to the outside of the combing. A cap plate on top of the combing would be one solution but it might mess up the angle of the back rest while sitting under the dodger. You wouldn't believe how much time I have spent starring at that area and trying to envision the best way to handle it.

The teak trim is both practical and classy, Steve.