Made in the Shade

  So we are now working on some shade and rain protection for the cockpit. We have been doing alot of thinking about the frame, and redesigning of the bimini and enclosure. After much deliberation, and frustration trying to have tube work done for the frame, we have decided to go with Iverson Designs DYI Frame kit from Iversons Designs. It should be here in a few weeks. We sent them all the measurements, then they will bend and weld the tubes, put together our specs, ship it to us, and we trim to length and put it together. 

The crew here has given much thought as to how we want the cockpit to look, but most importantly, it has to be functional under way. After some estimates for the bimini and enclosure, as well as some other items that we want to keep from protected from the tropical sun, we have decided take on the challenge of doing all the canvas ourselves. That means getting a sewing machine that will handle the canvas work, and sail mending when needed. 

Cap'n Carey sent our dimensions and such to alot of canvas places for estimates, and after some came back it was obvious we were not willing to fork over the B.O.A.T bucks (break out another thousand) required to have them do it for us. So have we decided the best way would be to spend that money on the sewing machine, parts, tools, and canvas material for just shy of most of the quotes that we got back, and a couple that we could buy 2. So we decided that we can do so much more than just the canvas work. We can do all the cushions, hatch covers, BBQ cover, and everything else with it too. It is an investment that will save us $$$'s in the end, and will be fun too. We decided to go with the  Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ-1. It goes for $899.oo for the deluxe kit witch includes the case to protect and carry the machine, as well as led light, and a few other add ons. It was on sale when we started looking at them, and now they aren't, so we can wait a little longer till they go back on sale, and we can save our $$'s till then. Our results are yet to be seen, but we will have more on that later.
bunkmate