We have done these as a kit, the idea being we can make them larger and smaller and from our standard cut file program. With the first one being here in Cape Town and another down in New Zealand, we now have an order to send one to the USA.
This canopy replaced an old and worn canvas one, it was falling apart after six or seven years in the sunlight. Note the space and clean light airy feeling it gives.
This shot is really about the support cleat in the corner, it is fastened to a vertical cleat and adds a lot of strength to the structure, we can also supply the teak grab rail as an extra.
You may want some ventilation, a shop bought hatch is costly, so we cut the base and lift frame froom a window offcut as part of the kit, the teak hatch trim is hand made and an extra.
Various hinges can be made to work, the underside of the wood/epoxy frame is fitted with 6mm foam tape, three years on and it still does not leak. The plastic glaze panel and handle needs to be sourced, we can probably do this too.
This canopy replaced an old and worn canvas one, it was falling apart after six or seven years in the sunlight. Note the space and clean light airy feeling it gives.
This shot is really about the support cleat in the corner, it is fastened to a vertical cleat and adds a lot of strength to the structure, we can also supply the teak grab rail as an extra.
You may want some ventilation, a shop bought hatch is costly, so we cut the base and lift frame froom a window offcut as part of the kit, the teak hatch trim is hand made and an extra.
Various hinges can be made to work, the underside of the wood/epoxy frame is fitted with 6mm foam tape, three years on and it still does not leak. The plastic glaze panel and handle needs to be sourced, we can probably do this too.
The timber to laminate the back edge lip seen here is part of the kit, it stiffens the roof and makes a great hand hold but also stops water dropping into the cockpit.
The kit does include the materials to the sides and in 15mm marine plywood, the roof as a laminate in two sheets of 4mm marine plys and one sheet of 8mm bending ply for the core. The epoxy to coat the surfaces are included, so are the glass tapes , which are later filled over with a mix of micro balloons and fumed silica, thats supplied too.
We include meranti wood cleats and the mount blocks, plus the shaped corners as well.
The glass windows are heat treated toughened and have an SABS approoval stamp on them, we also include the Dow Corning 813 silicone to fit the windows with. The roof has a 16mm MDF jig to mould the three sheets of plys over, we even supply the plastic sheeting to cover it with and stop the roof laminate sticking to the jig.
How good is that!
Roy
Note, this size hard dodger when scaled down by around 28%, fits an Erickson 35 mk2 quite well, we should have those cut files ready next week. We have been asked to look at doing a Nicholson 35 as well, that should be able to use the same sizes as the Erickson 35 mks?
