Mirage 24 sailboat Bimini

Biminis, preventing sun stroke on the water since. ...  times forgotten.  This week we have taken one step more towards cruising boat and one step away from racing boat. The recent heatwave has us thinking it's a long way out a sunny channel to get into the lake and it is not too shady out on Lake Michigan. 

So, there are a few ways to go about this Bimini business. You can go the custom route get the parts, bend the tubing or have someone do this for you.  Can you say cha-ching, because the local canvas guy can see you coming.  Yeah, that's not the way I went. After much measuring and figuring, I decided to visit Amazon.com and find a prefab kit and modify from there.  I went with a 3 rib system that is 8ft wide by 6ft long.  8 by 8 would cover the entire cockpit but the mainsheet would interfere so there will be a 2ft area uncovered at the front of the cockpit perhaps someday I'll install a dodger to cover it as well. 

Once I wrestled around and figured out where the frame needed to be mounted, I pulled the kit provided skin over the top and grabbed a piece of chalk marking on the top what would have to be cut out to allow the split backstay to work freely. With a few snips of the scissors, I clipped out a line from the stern of the cover and cut a window for the backstay. Then slipped the skin over the back rib pulling it all tight.

Next, I went ahead and raised the mainsail. To make sure all the measuring had paid off. The intention is to be able to use this Bimini while underway so it has to be low enough to clear the boom.  I sheeted it in and pulled the backstay tension on tight.  Things are looking really good here.  It may rub slightly with everything tightened to the max but it looks like everything will have clearance.

Like most sailing projects there is some sewing involved so I removed the bimini skin and took it home. I pulled out the sewing machine and got to work.  My plan was to trim in the edges with black Sunbrella I had laying around and velcro the seam sliced up the back of the bimini.  

Then I had a revelation the kit came with a cover for the bimini.  A cover that I couldn't use because of the backstay and I really don't intend on taking this thing up and down a bunch. The cover has a really nice zipper in it. So instead of velcro, I cut the zipper out of the cover trimmed it to size and sewed it into the top of the bimini.  The area where the backstay goes through I decided to trim out in dacron sail edging.  I had this laying around from the Typhoon Genoa. Plus it is just easier to sew through dacron than Sunbrella. I broke my heavy-duty machine on another project. The dacron will prevent fraying and provide some chafe protection on the backstay. 

Once finished I put a little bit of JB weld on the ends of the zipper so it would not come off the end once zipped up. The next morning Myles and I went down and put the canvas skin back on the frame. Not bad for a $132.00 + scraps. This winter I'll have to see about sewing up a gray sail cover to match I think.