Hard top retrofitting - any better ideas welcome

[MapisM]

Believe it or not, the last days down here in CF have been warm enough to actually look for shadow, in the middle of the day.
Which reminded me the very good reasons why I retrofitted an hard top on the f/b of my old lady.
The new boat does have a bimini of course, but that's nowhere near as convenient as a more solid structure, which on top of being larger, isn't a concern whenever wind blows - not to mention the potential usage for solar panels.
So, that and the lack of any decent TV program made me play a bit with the PC on a possible future upgrade.
No need for further explanations, I reckon - the title and the images say it all...
Over to you folks, thanks in advance!

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Looks good. Is it possible to have the hardtop grp pillar more accurately mirror the form of the C-pillar from the saloon?

 

[bluetooth]

Are you planning to rotate the radar arch 180 degrees to forward facing and then use as base for GRP additions ?

 

[jfm]

Looks good

I'm worried about the stiffness. These things wobble. I'd want bigger tube for front legs and would not have the shark fins on those short legs.

What about keeping the arch as is ( lay up Grp inside it to stiffen it maybe) and mounting short legs on the front edge of the shark fins, leaning forward? Exactly like sun seeker yacht 82 (myag)

Generally I prefer the shark fins leaning back, as on my boat, but that's just personal choice

 

[MapisM]

Are you planning to rotate the radar arch 180 degrees to forward facing and then use as base for GRP additions ?

Bingo.
That's what I did also with the image, but as the title goes... :encouragement:

 

[MrB]

Looks good

Exactly like sun seeker yacht 82 (myag)

Isn't Myags boat a SunSeeker 80 ?

 

[MapisM]

Yup, I believe she is.
Anyhow, this is the type of solution jfm was suggesting, I reckon. Far from saying it's bad, but I'm not loving it, either...
Otoh, I agree with him that the tubes should be larger than in my pic - that was just to get a first, very rough idea...

 

[Hurricane]

Are you planning to rotate the radar arch 180 degrees to forward facing and then use as base for GRP additions ?

Bingo.
That's what I did also with the image, but as the title goes... :encouragement:

What are your reasons for reversing the radar arch?
I ask because I think it might be easier to simply add a hard top in place of the bimini.
Is it headroom?
I quite like hard tops so I've often thought what I would do to add one to the P67
Our bimini is massive but also when it is up, we have plenty of headroom.
Which makes me think that a simple construction that extends the top of the radar arch (in its current orientation) forward.
Again, our bimini's forward position is about where I would want a hard top to end.

I haven't played with Photoshop or anything because I can't see me doing a project like this but I think a bimini replacement style is the kind of thing I would do.

 

[MapisM]

What are your reasons for reversing the radar arch?

Two reasons, M:
1) the existing arch is way too low to just attach the HT to it and extend it forward, so it has to be redesigned somehow, regardless of its leaning direction.
2) its position is much more astern than in JW, whose radar arch is built to allow enough space astern for the f/b crane and tender.

I fully agree that in JW the bimini coverage is just about perfect, and you should rather follow the same design, than invent anything different.
But you can easily imagine from my pic above that by keeping the same position/leaning of the radar arch, the overall HT surface would be much larger - which is a recipe for making all sort of structural/stiffness problems even worse...
Besides, I also tried to design something decent that could be built at a reasonable cost - hence the idea of re-using the existing arch.
Btw, this is also to answer JTB understandable question about replicating the saloon C-pillar shape.

Then again, I can't actually think of a much better solution even if I should remove cost from the equation...
Not that I could use a money no object approach anyway, mind!

 

[rafiki_]

Yup, I believe she is.
Anyhow, this is the type of solution jfm was suggesting, I reckon. Far from saying it's bad, but I'm not loving it, either...
Otoh, I agree with him that the tubes should be larger than in my pic - that was just to get a first, very rough idea...

Looks nice P. Front struts should brace forward rather than aft, reducing the tendency to lozenge. Generally hard tops on sub 60 foot boats make the styling uncomfortable, not so on yours above. From a personal perspective, I wish we had the weather to cause us to consider a bimini on Rafiki, let alone a hard top

 

[BartW]

Good plan P,
have you considered dropping the shark fins completely, and use a center pole in the back, like on MCY65 and MCY70 ?
actually your drawing doesn't look too bad,
but in general, for me, very few FB boats look sleek with a hardtop, as without one.
I'm still struggeling with the same problem, and with time to finish my own project...

 

[Bouba]

Believe it or not, the last days down here in CF have been warm enough to actually look for shadow, in the middle of the day.
Which reminded me the very good reasons why I retrofitted an hard top on the f/b of my old lady.
The new boat does have a bimini of course, but that's nowhere near as convenient as a more solid structure, which on top of being larger, isn't a concern whenever wind blows - not to mention the potential usage for solar panels.
So, that and the lack of any decent TV program made me play a bit with the PC on a possible future upgrade.
No need for further explanations, I reckon - the title and the images say it all...
Over to you folks, thanks in advance!

If you take the rear support pole of your hardtop and continued it through to the cockpit deck you would strengthen the flybridge and give a much firmer support for the hardtop. That way the forward support poles wouldn't be stressed as much therefore you could be a bit more artistic with them

 

[Hurricane]

If you take the rear support pole of your hardtop and continued it through to the cockpit deck you would strengthen the flybridge and give a much firmer support for the hardtop. That way the forward support poles wouldn't be stressed as much therefore you could be a bit more artistic with them

I've got a similar pole running through my cockpit to support the FB - but it doesn't stop there - it continues down right onto the stringers/supports on the hull itself.
If you were attempting to transfer weight in this example, just transferring the weight to the cockpit might not be enough.

 

[vas]

P.,

I still remember the discussion on the previous h/t. I wonder if did bother to lower it in the winter or not???
Have a look at this (I don't like it, but I've no printer at work so I had to work on Pshop only whereas I'd prefer to sketch a bit first...)

trying to get some lines from the superstructure that you could use up there, but I don't think the louvres from the salon windows really works. First you got to decide how large you want your h/t. Mind mine which is only 2.2X2.3m is on 2X48mm tubes plus the inverted V on the bow (28mm) plus the crossbracing of 20 or 22mm. And it's ss construction that overall is around 150kg with panels and radar. If you're talking about a 2.5X4.something meters we are talking some serious weight...
You have a crane and space for the tender up there or not?

if I get some time I'll try some more and come back.

cheers

V.

 

[jfm]

Yup, I believe she is.
Anyhow, this is the type of solution jfm was suggesting, I reckon. Far from saying it's bad, but I'm not loving it, either...

Yup I get your point. I don't love it, but it aint bad. It allows you to keep your low radar arch, and slightly shorten the HT component by angling the triple legs forward. It also avoids having to cut and remake the aft 100mm of the glass and inox frame. You could also cut out the centre part of your radar arch, just like in the Y80 picture.

On tube thickness, go big. You want these things stiff in waves. The sunseeker type of construction will result in wobbles. It's personal choice and I guess some will find the Sq78 tube 80mm diameter too much but I like it:

 

[Bouba]

Ok, how about this; if you want shade on the flybridge use a bimini. If you want a permanent shaded area, extend the overhang over the whole cockpit. This will give you a permanent place to place solar panels

 

[vas]

Ok, how about this; if you want shade on the flybridge use a bimini. If you want a permanent shaded area, extend the overhang over the whole cockpit. This will give you a permanent place to place solar panels

a friend did that (extend the overhang) but it only works on certain orientations as the bimini and whole f/b shades the overhang and you get no current flowing in your batteries...

V.

 

[simonfraser]

Not familiar with the scale and shade cast by the roof section, but I'd fit a track for a sunshade on at least one side.

 

[Hurricane]

Ok, how about this; if you want shade on the flybridge use a bimini. If you want a permanent shaded area, extend the overhang over the whole cockpit. This will give you a permanent place to place solar panels

Actually, a bimini isn't a great solution.
We are always taking ours down in windy conditions.
Imagine 25 knots of wind and to get away from it you need to drive into the wind - that easily could be a 50 knot apparent wind - the bimini doesn't like that kind of wind - well ours doesn't anyway.
We are often caught out having to run with the wind for a short while whilst we fold it away.

Generally speaking biminis aren't as robust as hard tops - hard tops are permanent and inheritantly more substantial.
The humble bimini has its shortcomings.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Imagine 25 knots of wind and to get away from it you need to drive into the wind - that easily could be a 50 knot apparent wind - the bimini doesn't like that kind of wind - well ours doesn't anyway

Take your point but I've only taken my bimini down once in about 10yrs of owning a bimini clad boat in the Med for high winds. Providing the frame is solid and well fixed and most importantly the bimini itself is well secured to the frame it should stand up to nearly anything. Regarding a hardtop, I'm not sure I'd want the extra weight of a hardtop on top of a boat much less than say 70ft and yes I know that hardtops are de rigeur on the floating tower blocks that pass for boats these days

P have you talked to your man at DP about this? Would he be happy about having the extra weight of a hardtop on his flybridge from both the structural and stability point of view?