Sunday, May 29, 2016

New Bimini for the boat

So it looks like rain for our trip so I added a bimini top, got it from Amazon for $104 shipped. Had to cut it down quite a bit, it was 46", cut it down to about 33 to fit under the boom so I could use it while sailing. 

Oh, and I finally cleaned the top sides! 

Link to the bimini (associate link): Amazon.com: Best Choice Products SKY1161 6' 600D UV Waterproof Top 3 Bow Bimini Boat Cover with Storage Case: Automotive


Thursday, May 19, 2016

Restoring the front hatch on my Spirit 23

The front hatch on our boats is a strong plastic of some variety, not acrylic or lexan. I was lucky in that my front hatch was not badly damaged, just some cracks along the back edge, but a ton of crazing. It was actually pretty solid since i did manage to step on it a few times.


 So I figured it couldn't hurt to try to pretty it up now that the windows look so good!

You can follow my thread on sailnet for more post although I will try to put them here as well now: Spirit 23 in Charlotte, NC

I epoxied the cracks in the back and then brushed the whole top of it with a couple layers of thinned epoxy to fill the cracks and crazing in it. Then covered it with about 10 coats of a semi gloss spar varnish.



The second image is just to show that it is still translucent, never be clear with all the crazing and such.

Overall really happy with it and I think it should hold up pretty well. I will probably make a cover for it for when it is stored just to keep the varnish fresh. Time will tell how it holds up.