Getting a custom hard top - ideas please

[arcot]

Built 3 mm ply hard top for our 37 steel sailboat.
Had it made in 3mm aluminum complete with raised part for 60 Watt solar panel then add stainless steel co.mercial hand holds.
...

4 attempts at the design...each viewed from afar and altered ....as each became less ugly!

Trailer rear ended while moving finished aluminum piece to boat.. while I was stopped at a red light.
.
Driver was using cell phone.

 

[ChromeDome]

They are in the USA

Not exactly:

Ladenstein Yacht Co., LTD.
Soi Ongkharak 15,
Samsen Road Thanon Nakhon Chaisi Road, Thailand, Bangkok,

Not sure if it changes anything. The idea of a moulded bimini is interesting regardless.

 

[Neeves]

Sorry - yes me again. Just posted on varnish but we're onto the winter list so here's the next one !

Having had our 36' catamaran for a couple of years we have decided that we would like two new goodies - a full cockpit cover to give us more space and to keep out the British weather - and we would like to increase the number of solar panels. We already have solar panels on the coach-roof - its either a hard top or an arch and the former would fulfill both the objectives.

So the idea is to commission someone to make and fit a hard top which fits to the existing windscreen, covers part of the cockpit including the helmsman's seat & instruments, allows us to site some more solar and then to add to this a canvas cockpit cover with lots of windows. Don't say make it yourselves - as has been suggested elsewhere on this forum - our skill levels and patience aren't up to it ! We're thinking something like fibre-glass with high density foam. It doesn't need to be too strong as there is no need to walk about on it - just to support a couple of big solar panels and provide the attachment for the canvas cover. Beyond the windscreen there is currently no support for a hard top or cover so we'd be looking at either fibreglass supports or stainless.

Given that its not totally straightforward it is likely that we will need someone to measure and design, as well as to fabricate and fit. We're based on the River Dart. Does anyone know or have experience of a similar project ? And can anyone recommend someone (probably reasonably local) to do the job ? TIA.

I may have missed the detail but why not be original and post a couple of pictures of your cat

Jonathan

 

[coopec]

Don't over estimate the skills of posters nor the skills needed for a project. Never underestimate your own skills. Coopec has just launched a 43' yacht he built himself - nothing is impossible.

If you wanted to build your own hard top, and the OP was not focussed on that route, then there are enough members here with the skills to build a hard top who would be happy to take you through the process step by step. If you look at professionally built hardtops its not much different - its a scale thing - to building a Mirror dinghy - and thousands of them were successfully constructed. To me - foam is easier, easier to work, easier to cobble over mistakes but plywood simply needs a better saw. There is plenty of professional background support eg West System etc etc.

If you want to explore the idea - start here. If after all the posts you still feel daunted - then cogitate and define your concerns - maybe you will find a like minded neighbour and you can build 2 together.

There are restrictions as you need space, say an empty garage or a big and relatively empty (if that is not a contradiction) garden shed, time and patience. I have a huge workshop and we built at home, step by step, slowly building up the structure using cardboard templates. The biggest difficult for us was that our cat was on a swing mooring and taking the part completed structure and final structure in a dinghy was something of a chore.

You have winter creeping up on you, so a heated shed would be nice, but winter offers you plenty of time to build. and the weather when you don't want to actually be on your yacht.

Jonathan

I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself!d I've just arrived back after working on Helen. While there I witnessed a group of 5 people walking along the footpath at the marina who stopped and looked at my yacht for a couple of minutes before moving on. (Perhaps they looked at the yacht because it is an older design and a ketch - a bit like me looking at a a Riley RMC Sports Car ar MG TC?)

 

[Neeves]

I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself!d I've just arrived back after working on Helen. While there I witnessed a group of 5 people walking along the footpath at the marina who stopped and looked at my yacht for a couple of minutes before moving on.

Get used to it.

From the pictures you have posted she is stunning. Most yachts, when new, are pretty - yours is not a common design - most yachts look the same as the one next door in the marina, maybe bigger of smaller - but not much to make them stand out.

Yours is both different and gorgeous - and built by one man at home (proving it is possible).

We looked at building a cat - and set ourselves a couple of small projects, a helm station aka 'the God pod' and 1m transom extensions. Both were successful, and I found interesting, but building two hulls was beyond my patience. When other Lightwave owners saw our God Pod - the reaction was common place - we want one. Strangely the transom extentions did not produce the same reaction. But the longer transoms, about 50mm above the water line allow easy access to dinghy or yacht (depends which way you are going ) and we moved 200amp/hr batteries, 80l fridge (and the God Pod), they are great for landing tuna, easy to swim onto (and similarly should be good for MOB)

Jonathan

 

[rogerthebodger]

Jonathan

What is a God Pod

Do you have any pics

 

[coopec]

Jonathan

What is a God Pod

Do you have any pics

Maybe peculiar to catamarans?

"Tracy Edwards In The 'god Pod' The Main Control Room Of The Boat 'ensa' A Twin Hulled Catamaran"

Tracy Edwards God Pod Main Control Editorial Stock Photo - Stock Image | Shutterstock

 

[Tranona]

I may have missed the detail but why not be original and post a couple of pictures of your cat

Jonathan

See post#10, although a side on view would be more helpful.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Sorry Clive link does not work for me

 

[Rappey]

Youtube channel "parley revival" built a whole hard top for their cat. Might be interesting to see how they did it using foam.
It needed to be light weight but strong enough to walk on to allow access to the boom/ mainsail

 

[coopec]

Sorry Clive link does not work for me

Well it just worked for me.

What about googling "Tracy Edwards In The 'god Pod' The Main Control Room Of The Boat 'ensa' A Twin Hulled Catamaran"
That worked for me too.

 

[Bouba]

vas of this parish made his own hardtop and did a thread on it a while ago…why don’t you PM him to see what his thread was called

 

[Neeves]

Jonathan

What is a God Pod

Do you have any pics

I don't know who coined the name.

I did not take pictures of the build - it did not seem so special to me thus of no interest to others. Most 'extensions' I see of cats are almost beam to beam - ours is asymmetric and just covers the helm station.

There is an issue with going beam too beam - and already mentioned. You need to be able to access the boom even if just to tidy the sail in the lazy jacks but more important to access when reefing (on the assumption something goes wrong or you, again, simply want to tidy up). If its full beam it then needs to be really strong to take the weight of the individual. The other issue is that there is not much room between the standard cockpit roof and the normal boom location but when you reef the boom 'falls down' - get it wrong, the distance the boom falls, and you will take out the extension - booms are heavy and when you are reefing you can expect some gyrations.

We sorted the problem by setting the topping lift such that the boom never touches the God Pod. But had to make sure no-one touched the topping lift - ever!

Jonathan

 

[Neeves]

See post#10, although a side on view would be more helpful.

Thanks, I'd forgotten that - more pictures would help.

Our God Pod was surprisingly heavy - I could lift it - but it was a decidedly awkward shape and easier with 2 people. But a full beam extension would be a real handful, like 4 people.

We built ours at home and my guess is others might build actually on the yacht. If the latter then you would start at the bottom and work up - never lifting the extension (and not realising how heavy - but then weight might not matter).

When we had finished it fitted well with at best a variable 10mm gap between extension and original 'deck'. We simply put packing tape on the gel coat where the extension would interface with the existing structure. We then made up thickened epoxy. Like spreadable butter . We then plonked the extension on top and made sure the epoxy filled all the gaps. When it had set off (you need a nice day or 2 for this) we lifted, prised, it off - perfect interface and took it home. We ground back where the epoxy had squeezed out, glassed the inside and out side of the joint, filled the glass, ground down (again). Took the extension back and placed back in place held and sealed with Sika. We had built a flange all round and in true belt and braces, PBO, style screwed through the flange into the original structure before the Sika had set.

Earlier - to paint I had built a polythene tent with flaps for windows. I sprayed through the flaps. It worked well - but you do need room, space.

I should have taken pictures - but I was so engrossed with the developing problems, how to spray paint, how to get the joint right, how to have windows, frames, opening (or not), simply glued in etc etc - my focus was in other directions. There were only around 20 Lightwaves, we were hull No 10, hardly a large enough customer base to have an editor interested. Now, of course, I regret the omission.

We had done something similar withe earlier transom extensions, made at home. But to fit it had to be done in a yard as we needed to grind off the gel coat down to the outer layer of glass and we had a 600mm overlap onto the original hull. The main issue is that resin and seawater don't mix - so it needs to be done dry - in good weather. We had glassed the extensions at home inside and out but still added two layers of glass for the joint - that 600mm overlap. It was great fun attaching a resin filled (still wet) sheet of glass onto the existing hull. We screwed on one side (holes filled later), had the wetted glass on a really heavy duty poly sheet (the sort concreters use) and wrapped down and underneath and then up the other side. The loose end had a batten and we, just the 2 of us, simply pulled the batten and poly sheet tight and rolled and tightened, rolled and tightened. When it had set off - simply pulled the poly sheet off clean. It worked well but was very messy - and we did not know if it would work .... until it did.

Most yachts when built as a one off are built upside down and the wetted glass is simply laid 'on top' and rolled onto the base. When the hull is finished it is then turned right way up. Wet glass has a life of its own when applied the 'wrong way'.

In doing this 'sort of thing' as an amateur you learn, too much, by mistake and by some forward thinking - but once you have done it - you never use most of the skills again. . But you have to be imaginative and willing to try -

Like testing solar panels on a roof (for which I was labelled a liar) - and be able to take the brick bats.


You soon learn of those with character defects. I recall Coopec being mocked - so unfair and unnecessary. Look at what he achieved - extraordinary.

My apologies for the rant - but for those that know I was sorely upset.

Jonathan