Any Cranchi/Gobbi sportcruiser owners with camper covers?

Nick_H

Nick_H

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I'm told that these boats have a luff track built into the top edge of the windscreen, and the camper covers attach by sliding the luff tape through, then having a full length horizontal zip. I want to copy this on the Windy, which does have the track in the top of the windscreen, but Jim (JB yacht services) is advising against it. Now Jim's the man when it comes to covers, so i'm sure he's right, but before I give up on what I thought was a genius idea, i'm interetsed to know how Cranchi or Gobbi owners get on with their covers.
 
hi nick,

I had this system on my bavaria. The tracks went round both sides of the arch and around the screen a weighted bit of canvass with one side of the zip went int the track and the covers than simply zipped on. I had very few poppers, and the whole thing was kept tight with straps at the rear corners to keep the tension.

I found the system worked very well, and it certainly leaked a great deal less than either of my boats that have used poppers.
 
Yep, that's exactly what i'm thinking of. Which model Bavaria did you have, I might have to try and get a look at one. I don't suppose you have any photos of the screen/tape/zip?
 
Nick,

I have a Gobbi in Southampton, you are welcome to go and have a look at it anytime. PM me for its location.

I have never really studied how the canopy fits in detail but when you unzip it a bit about an inch or two wide is left in place. I think an open circular white plastic bit is fixed to the side and a circular bit with half of the zip slides in to the open bit. The bit that is left is covered by a flap of canvas.

It all works very well, I have no problems with it.
 
Ditto on my Jeanneau

Same arrangement on my Jeanneau, very water tight and airtight seal, it is caravan awning technology that has been applied to the boat world..
 
The Bavaria I had was a 330Sport from 2001. The went out of production in 2002 and there arent many in the UK. Mine is for sale in Eastbourne, and RogerRat's old boat is for sale in Northney - both on with Ancasta.

The only problem I experienced with mine was the track started to work loose form the arch and water could get through the resulting gap. I think that was a product of age and not design, and it wasnt soemthing that a good dose of sikaflex and a scre couldnt fix :)
 
is the idea just along the front of the windscreen?
The present system is maybe 6-8 studs only on the front..Are you putting the cover up in two stages.. the front and back seperately? If so, I find that as long as you have the front bar set to its lowest point, and you keep it back 15-20cm from the end of the runner, then its very quick to put the front of the cover onto those studs..in fact, thats the easiest part of all of it ! Once most of the front cover is on, slide the bar fully forward to tighten it.
BTW, if you try to move any of the studs, you will almost certainly break the screws, which if you want to then replace it, means removing all the others back up to the central screen split... and probably breaking all the others on the way.
 
We've had this system on our last (Cranchi) and current (Sessa) boats. Both had replacement covers made by Jim. Happy with system and can't really imagine a better alternative. The front windscreen covers do have a zip that slides on to the top of the screen which you then attach the covers to. The side screens have the part that slides on to the frame stiched on. This does mean that you have to remove the front screeen prior to removing the side screens. This hasn't proved an issue.

Jim has also recently done another Sessa on our pontoon, I think this does have seperate runners for the sides and front so they could be removed independatly.

Your welcome to come and have a look if you're around the Chichester area.

Did Jim offer any reasons why not to go for this system?
 
Gavin

I'm thinking of doing it for the front half of the covers. I'd basically have a seperate strip of canvas an inch or two wide, with some luff tape along the bottom edge, and one half of the zip along the top edge. The other half of the zip would be sewn to the bottom edge of the canopy. To erect the canopy i'd just slide the strip along the luff track that's already built into the top of the windscreen, start the zip off at one end and run it all the way round the windscreen to the other end, then just tension the frame as it's done now. That would be super quick and easy. If it works well I could do something similar along the side sections of the back half of the canopy.
 
msimms

if i'm honest i didn't quite follow Jim's reasons as to why he didn't reccommend it, something about the luff tape ruffling, and also maybe the zip would leak if the windscreen angle is too raked. I can't see a ruffling problem, as the screen on the windy has shallow curves, and I could live with water seepage along the top of the windscreen, as it wouldn't drip on us.
 
just to mention, that sliding some of these studs out is pretty fiddly...I just wonder how well your luff canvas strip will slide...maybe that would depend on the thickness.Might be worth checking that before cutting the canvas...

Actually, we find the present method one of the better canvas fixings we ve used, and actually pretty quick. Well, might be bcz I need to replace alot of the studs , he he !!
Let me know if you do it.. we ll have a race and see who is quicker !!
 
Nick, as you will know a lot of the people involved with Gobbi are now at Absolute and hence a very similar system. I have had no issues with the design indeed it works very well and there are literally no poppers to be fiddling with.

There are about four or five Absolute's of different models on the hard at Hamble Point and you are welcome to go take a shufty to see how it all screws together.

Trev
 
Nick,

I have a Sessa (next to Mark as above) which uses the sliding system and have just had new covers fitted by JB. The old covers had a zip for the front covers, leaving just the sliding bead on the windscreen but having to slide this out if you wanted to remove the side windows as these were slide only and no zip. More often than not I'd just fold the side windows into the boat cause couldn't be bothered to slide them out. The new covers have zips all the way round meaning I can remove the front and sides easily by just undoing the zips and if I wanted totally clean lines can easily slide out the remaining bead with zip.

I'd say definitely have the zips.
 
Bludy hell, I thought I had come up with a great new idea for boat canopies, and it turns out every Kev, Trev and Jez already has 'em!

I'll have a wonder round the Lymington marinas and look for some of the boats mentioned above, i'm bound to find at least one. From the reports on here they seem to work well, so i'm not sure why Jim wasn't keen, maybe I didn't explain myself very well.
 
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