canvas canopy or hardtop

[gonfishing]

hiya me again more advice please
given the U.K weather what are the pro's and con's of the 2 types of canopy?
the canvas ones strike me as looking a bit flimsy especially if under way with a bit of a breeze blowing perhaps i am wrong what's your views?

 

[DavidJ]

Depends if the hard top comes all the way to the screen with your boat, if so don't do it. There is nothing better on a lovely day to get the top down and go for a blast. Conversly nothing worse than being couped up inside a cabin on a good day.
I guess what I'm suggesting is design for making the best from the few good days we have rather than for making bad days bearable.
David

 

[gonfishing]

a very worthy sentiment,with which i agree, but it is "she who likes to be obeyed ocassionally" that is insisting on not getting cold,or wet!! or both.

 

[DavidJ]

Give way on everything except this one
David

 

[paulineb]

I like to get my top down on a sunny day

Pxx

 

[MedDreamer]

We British are a deluded people. We are convinced that we are going to have long hot summers and therefore we buy sundeck sports cruisers and convertible cars. We then need protection from the elements so we put a nice Canvas top on the boat.

Common sense says hardtop but the dream says open (MedDreamer?). The result is that we do spend too much time cruising with the Canvas top flapping away and shivering. Unless you are an eskimo or have antifreeze in place of blood the boat is more or less unusable from November to March.

However for those days when the sun does shine it is a great feeling to take the canopy off any enjoy the open air and for me any my family that feeling outweighs the bad weather issues. We get more good days than we think and one of our best days last year was in November when we enjoyed clear blue skies, Windermere to ourselves. We removed some of the canopy panels, just leaving a few on as a windbreak, it was absolute magic.

Roll on springtime

Martyn

 

[mike_kolling]

Good compromise is a hood where you can leave half of it up as a kind of hard Top.

Then on the one day of the year when it is really hot you can take that down as well.

Its worth doing a dummy run folding down the hood and then re-assembling it BEFORE you buy it as some of them need a degree in Brain surgery to do smoothly.

Best of luck

Mike

 

[Jerbro]

What you really need is a hardtop with a nice big tinted glass sliding sunroof, if you can find one...:-}

Jerbro
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Click here for <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.btinternet.com/~jerbro> My boat pics</A>

 

[trev]

I'm a bit of a fresh air fiend and have all the canvas down so long as its not raining - its easy to keep warm with the proper gear. SWMBO doesn't go for this if its even slightly chilly - so the answer is a boat with the cover in panels which can be removed in stages to suit the weather.

Trev

 

[DavidJ]

Just brining Sealines into the debate.
Interesting that Sealine have on the same hull both options the C39 closed option and the S38 which is open. Interiors of both are quite different. I've looked around both (on dry land) and both beautiful (no mock walnut!) but preference for the open. They clearly see two markets.
David

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

On balance I prefer a canopy top because you always have three options with it, fold it away completely, use it as a bimini top or batten down completely but, when its battened down, you have to make sure you can see through the clear panels at the front. Also it would depend on how easy or difficult the canopy is to stow because some are right pigs with millions of poppers and recalcitrant zips. You might have to be erecting it whilst at sea due to spray or rain, so check you can do this from the cockpit without having to go onto the side decks
With a hardtop, it can get quite stuffy inside but if it had a decent sized opening roof plus opening side windows, I might be tempted because, in reality, you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of warm boating days in a typical British season

 

[tcm]

no, the canvas ones don't blow away. Or at least, in the sort of conditions in which they would, the hardtops might be having a bad time too.

The canvas ones will be quieter as not so much engine noise reverberates, with more and more of the top removed, and if you ever go on a demo with a broker he'll often take as much down for his reason.

I don't much get the hardtopps, although all the rage at the mo. May as well get a flybridge with is open AND closed.

 

[DavidJ]

Good point, Mike, about looking to erect the covers from the cockpit. Certainly can't do it with the S37 and it has got a bit hairy sliding around the deck trying to do it when the weather chops up. Any boats that you can manage to do it from the cockpit.
Although an advocate of covers, I do find taking them off and on every day a chore. Maybe that's what's let some boat builders to go 'closed'
David

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Yes, what the hardtop does allow is for the cockpit to become part of the accomodation. I can imagine sitting under the C39's hardtop very snug on a rainy day but not under the S38's canopy as no canopy I've ever seen is totally wind and water proof
Personally, I dont understand Sealine's marketing rationale. For me, the C39 with its choice of different drives would appeal more to the Med market and therefore should have a canopy whilst the S38 with its conventional drives should be the one sporting a hardtop

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I once had a S37 and I got the forward part of the canopy altered so thet the clear panel above the windscreen was split into 2 halves with each half being able to be unzipped separately and rolled up to sit on top of the windscreen. It was easy to open/close these sections as conditions permitted
For a really good canopy design, take a look at any new Broom. Their canopies are now secured by a couple of latches like a convertible car and it can be folded or erected in a few seconds from inside the cockpit. I dont understand why other manufacturers have'nt copied this

 

[tcm]

hah! too much uk boating? - the canvas top is to keep the SUN off, not the wind and rain.

Or at least- that's what they all used to say when it rained and the canvas leaked. So why have they all (except fairline) gone hardtoppy? Cos sunseeker started with bigger predators? Dunno. Must be loads noisier.

One difficult aspect of the hardtop is that it is not like softop cars, simply sawing the roof off: soft tops boats allow eyeline at windscreen level, but hardtops have to keep roof level higher to be able to close the thing yet still have headroom. So even when open, the driver is still behind a screen, looking thru it, no? or do they have to sit down else ouch wack head?

 

[DavidJ]

....or slide open the hatch (electric on the C39), poke your head through and look a complete plonker!!

 

[tcm]

oh is that how it's done! Nah, the whole hardtops-on-sportsboats looks weird to me, cept when on larger boats when zips would get a bit massive! Fine for baltic but you wd boil in the med on deck unless you can aircondition that volume: we have all sides up all summer, even at night - the top alone is just to keep the sun off.

Oh, and of course, need a nice barbecue up top, to heat it up nice and toasty.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Some hardtops eg Nimbus are not high enough for the helmsman to stand at the helm station so he has to stick his head through the sunroof for a decent view which apart from looking really stupid, means he gets decapitated every time he comes off the throttles a bit quick. Maybe a periscope would be useful
But you're right. Best would be removable hardtop a la Merc SL with canopy for our 2 week summer

 

[colinwcolclough]

Why not go for the option I'm fitting on my 20ft cruiser. A tube stainless steel frame supporting a square grp flat "roof" albeit with a bit of rocker with drop down canopy sides. Judging by your username, you like a bit of fishing; this option would allow you access whatever side is best for fishing from (down wind), whilst keeping you cosy. You can also store your dinghy up here, freeing space around your davits for fishing, or just access. It may even stop your boat being lost if it sinks, being held up by the stapped down dinghy!!!

Good luck

Colin W Colclough