Replace bimini with foam.core grp.hard top?

[nw04jen]

Hello
Has anyone done this or known where to inquire in the UK - ie replace a canvass bimini with a foam core grp hardtop with a manual retracting sun shade ?
Not.really.any idea where to start!

Many thanks

 

[Elessar]

Hello
Has anyone done this or known where to inquire in the UK - ie replace a canvass bimini with a foam core grp hardtop with a manual retracting sun shade ?
Not.really.any idea where to start!

Many thanks

JFM did this on Match 1. I think it cost c £125k. Still interested?

 

[nw04jen]

Omg absolutely not. I'll stick with canvas bimini!

 

[rafiki_]

Hello
Has anyone done this or known where to inquire in the UK - ie replace a canvass bimini with a foam core grp hardtop with a manual retracting sun shade ?
Not.really.any idea where to start!

Many thanks

Vas fitted a hardtop to his boat MiToS 10 or so years ago. It is still in place, and does the job. You will need to search for the thread.

 

[Hacker]

I plan to do this over the winter. We will make a cored hard top bolted to the original and supported by corner supports. Will then hang side and rear curtains to finish the enclosure.

 

[Little Ricky]

JFM did this on Match 1. I think it cost c £125k. Still interested?

Hi, as a new member (yet to get the humour) I have to ask if your answer was ligit or a joke/mistake?

 

[Clash]

Hi, as a new member (yet to get the humour) I have to ask if your answer was ligit or a joke/mistake?

If you knew jfm, his current 'Match' is around 100 foot San Lorenzo, so likely to be legit.

 

[Mileholm]

I believe this is Nick Burnham’s tour of it:

Excellent use of 1hr+ if you want to follow the full build:
Thread 'New build Sanlorenzo SL96A 2024'
New build Sanlorenzo SL96A 2024

 

[Clash]

I believe this is Nick Burnham’s tour of it:

That's the current one. Match One was either its predecessor or its predecessor's predecessor.

 

[PaulRainbow]

That's the current one. Match One was either its predecessor or its predecessor's predecessor.

If i remember correctly (getting harder these days ) Match one was the first of three Fairline Squadrons.

 

[Clash]

Here it is. Complete with bimini. Think that's the original non-GRP one.

 

[rafiki_]

Hi, as a new member (yet to get the humour) I have to ask if your answer was ligit or a joke/mistake?

It is neither a joke nor mistake. JFM had 2 Fairline Squadron 78’s. The second he kept for 10 or so years, replaced last year with his San Lorenzo 96a. The second Squadron had a hard top fitted, hence Elessar’s post above. That is one end of the spectrum. Vas built and fitted his own design and build to MiToS, the other end.

 

[rafiki_]

If i remember correctly (getting harder these days ) Match one was the first of three Fairline Squadrons.

JFM had 2 Sq 78’s.

 

[ashtead]

Getting back to perhaps the scale the OP had in mind clearly many hallbergs have hardtops fitted at building stage but I haven’t heard of a retrofit version but if so that might be a source of learning . I am sure I didn’t imagine it but I recall a conversion of a westerly centaur to add a hard top dodger -it didn’t do a lot for its lines though but a search of this forum might reveal info or try westerly owners for info as I sure some westerly somewhere will have done this notwithstanding the implications to the fine lines.

 

[jfm]

I have a day off from boating today so catching up on posts

I had 2 x Squadron 78s. First one pictured in Lerins islands, Cannes, c.2011, in post #11 above, and nowadays in Sweden) had a bimini. Second one was built with a bimini before Fairline had finished tooling up for the hard top, then it had a hard top retrofitted a year after delivery. Cost was £110k approx, but that was a full factory team installation with lighting, music, electric opening roof, repaint of mast/radars, etc.

For OP, the challenge is finding a mould tool/supplier, because a custom job will always be very expensive. There are some suppliers, including in Australia (and shipping won't be much) so it is worth hunting down a unit that will fit. Or nearly fit, because you can modify it. You might be able to do this for say £30k but of course cost = how long is a piece of string.

If you're good with GRP you can make your own. One way is plywood sheathed in GRP then faired and painted. Another way is using laminate faced plywood, bent to a curved mould. You can make it in sections joined together and you can mould or fit edges. Lots of different approaches to this task, and all depends on what you want to achieve, how much compound curvature you want, and what labour resources you have available.

Good luck

 

[jfm]

If i remember correctly (getting harder these days ) Match one was the first of three Fairline Squadrons.

I had 2 x Squadron 58s (in succession) called Braveheart, then 2 x Squadron 78s called Match, and nowadays the SL96A also called Match

 

[PaulRainbow]

I had 2 x Squadron 58s (in succession) called Braveheart, then 2 x Squadron 78s called Match, and nowadays the SL96A also called Match

Thanks for the correction. I remember the first Match, i had a Merry Fisher 805 in Shotley when she was being finished in The Haven, you did invite us for a look around her, but i didn't make it before she was launched. We were anchored off Gunfleet Sands when you zoomed past us heading South

 

[Elessar]

Deleted JFM already replied!

 

[nw04jen]

Thanks for the responses. Yeah was thinking something simple liked Ply - reinforced grp / gelcoat finish just to replace a full time fairly ugly bimini on a Squadron 68 - with the advance in lighting and speakers over the years, should be fairly easy to incorporate these - and budgeting 30k ish...

 

[jfm]

Do you mean the "original" sq68 for the circa 2007 period?

I must say that the original bimini on that boat made by Makefast was/is a very good thing and I would hesitate to change it. Other biminis, whether the early factory biminis or the many retrofits, are generally not so good.

If you want a boat yard to do the hard top job (as opposed to DIY) you won't get a good job for £30k I'm afraid. You'll maybe get a job, but not a good job. It's not simple: the structure has to be able to take wind loads, snow loads, and the dynamic loads as the boat hits waves. You need to reinforce the boat where the hard top attaches, and that means removing the saloon/galley/lower helm internal ceiling. The HT needs diagonal stiffness too (ie so that it doesn't parallelogram flex, side to side) and that is hard to do in a retrofit. Remember Fairline achieved diagonal stiffness in their Sq78 hard tops using a "fifth leg" structure at the rear of the sq78 hard top. It can be achieved on a retrofit using well designed stainless steel legs and retaining the twin GRP radar mast. Here's a good example (with much "diagonalisation" of the forward-most HT legs) but it will have cost more than £30k. https://uk.boats.com/power-boats/2007-fairline-squadron-68-9863153/

If you mean the current sq68 then of course please ignore the above. Better to buy the HT moulding from Fairline and get someone to fit it.