Med canopy's

[Magnum]

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I'm getting excited now.

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I bet you are. I'm excited for you [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Nick_H]

Its probably too late, but if its a similar design to the 57 then i'd consider upgrading the whole bimini from the Princess standard. If you look at the bimini on the Ferretti 630 its much more substantial, bigger diameter tube, better hinges etc.

With the standard one you will need tensioners otherwise it'll rattle and clatter at speed. Webbing will do the job, though personally I think plastic coated wire looks neater. I also changed the pins on ours from the ones with a ball bearing to the ones with a hinged plate, because the poles would jump out as we were going along. If you want to raise and lower the bimini regularly, then a good idea is to use clips on the end of the tensioning wires that are hinged at the very end, and have a collar that slides down to lock them (that's a terrible description, i'll post a link). Otherwise you have to release the tension before you can unclip the tensioning wires, which is a pain, though not a problem with webbing i suppose.

I agree blue, it does get hotter, but looks better for longer

[Nick_H]

I was of course referring to a swage end catch hook, the point being it tensions as it closes. Link didn't work, but you can google it now you know what it is.

[mikef]

Yup, the Ferretti bimini is indeed a substantial structure but they quoted me €14,000 for one for my boat so heaven knows what a bimini for the 630 would cost. I eventually got one made locally in SoF for about €3000

[Hurricane]

Thanks Nick
Not too late yet.

We are NOT buying a Princess bimini - will probably get someone local to the Hamble to make something that works and looks good. We had a bimini made for our T51 by JB Covers and I expect we will be using him again.

I was thinking of s/s wires at the front of the bimini tensioned with (what we used to call on dinghies as) a highfield lever - sometimes used as shroud leaver to tension mast rigging.
I had a quick google but couldnt find exactly what I was looking for - something a bot like one of these http://www.rwo-marine.com/rig_adjust.html

However, ar the moment, I favour Mike's webbing solution tensioned with one of those clicky angle things that you see on lorries - you know - the ones you get your fingers caught in. Last year, I bought some stainless ones for holding the JetRib onto the bathing platform. Ther may be something more elegant though.

[mikef]

Our webbing strops look like this



Don't what those things are called that tension the webbing but they seem to work