home made bimini - what to use for battens?

[ChattingLil]

I bought some battens from here http://www.allproppedup.co.uk/

annoyingly have ordered wrong thing as they are not stiff enough at all.

any advice on what I should get that would be stiff enough to hold the bimini more-or-less flat? It goes over the boom and is guyed to the guard rails.

 

[LadyInBed]

Tent poles or frame tent poles?

 

[William_H]

Your boom shelter (I am not sure it should be called a bimini) is demanding a lot of battens. I imagine 2 .5 metres wide. Even the stiffest of carbon fibre battens might be struggling to hold it flat. Only the dimension from top to bottom (thickness of the batten) can help you in this design.
I would suggest electrical conduit or thick walled irigation pipe might suit as it is cheap and comes in various diameters. Aluminium tubing might also suit.
If you were to change the design to use dome tent battens might suit where the pole (fibreglass rod) is in compression end on in a semicircular curve which gives them stiffness. ie from one gunwhale tot he other in a dome shape. good luck olewill

 

[vyv_cox]

My awning sits over the boom supported by poles that are nearly 3 metres long. The development version used plastic water pipe that was not too bad but difficult to stow and bent over time. I replaced them with 11mm Vango fibreglass tent poles. They come as a set of five, each 65 cm long. Part No. ACXFIBRPO3D2P83. I have used these extensively over the past five or six years, they work very well and barely bend at all, although the forward and aft ones are supported by the bimini and shrouds and the centre one by a bridle hauled up by the main halliard. The awning has survived force six winds without flapping.

 

[RobbieW]

The poles in my 'over the boom' bimini are roughly 1" stainless tube, max length c. 3.8m (they break down for stowing) as its full width. That is heavy, rigging it is a two man job and it wears the sail cover so some rethinking is required. I'll have to try a set of Vyv's poles - ta. I'd already started to think about how it could be hung from the halyard and how effective that might be.

 

[pcatterall]

+1 the Vango poles. They are what I used. Mine do bend however which I regard as a plus as I can pull them ‘down’ when the sun is lower. I sometimes pull one side down on the sunny side and have the other high to walk around. I used the same poles in sleeves along the sides of the cover joined to the cross poles by T joints. These stiffen the sides and I can fasten to some stays as well as down to the top rail.

 

[LadyInBed]

Thanks to Vyv's input for the trade name for the tent poles, I also came across this make that do different sizes and thicknesse.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Andes-Repla...sim_200_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=02S6SKRS7ZPSJ3F2RMV1