New Boat Canopy Advice

[SeaSaw]

Hi all,

I am in need of a new bimini style canopy and clears for my boat. Can anyone recommend a good and reasonably priced trimmer in Brisbane north or sunshine coast area.

Also, are there any things to watch out for, like different qualities in canvas, aluminium tubing, connectors etc that need to be considered, or are thing pretty standard in this area?

Thanks in advance, any advice or experiences (good and bad) would be greatly appreciated.

Mark

[coasty]

get one with 3 bars across the cover as it stops the canopy flapping when going. and clips with ties to hold it firm when its folded down

[Sportfish_5]

Mark - Try Brisbane Boat Trim @ Brendale. Justin does great work there and does all of Noble and AMM's work so he must be doing something right. He did up a custom cover for my Centre Cab that fits like a glove. Could not have been happier with price and quality (always a balance there though)

Cheers,

Greg

[dazza]

hi mark,
just got the canopy redone on my boat (haines 680 sf). shop around. one quote was $1200 and another was $600. big difference for exactly the same thing.
is your boat a 680sf. looks like the same model as mine.
if you want to have a look at the one we got done- no probs
cheers
dazza

[Cheech]

Mark,

Have not actually had any work done by Justin at Brendale, but did buy a heap of alluminium tubing from him when I modified and extended my canopy. He was really helpful and spent time explaining how to bend it without kinks, what radius I needed etc. None of this he had to do as there was nothing in it for him. But he did anyway.

If I was going to get a canopy made up that is where I would go.

Yes there is a difference in the tube. You can get shinny or matt finish. Justin tends to only use shinny but if you wanted matt then he could probably order in.

The other thing is the wall thickness. Comes in 1.6 or 3 mm. Make sure you get the 3mm for the parts that will take load otherwise it can be a bit flimsy. Ok for the thinner for the non load bearing. I am sure they will be able to put you straight on what is best where, but at least this would be on my discusion list. If any section was borderline thick or thin, I would go thick.

Cheech

[SeaHunt]

Hi Cheech , you wouldn't know off hand what size alloy tubing Justin has up there? I have been chasing some 32 mm diam stuff without much success. I have only been able to find someone to sell it to me in 6 Metre lengths.?

[Cheech]

Hope the attachment works (first try).

Had an inquiry as to what the jig looked like so posting it here in case others are interested as well.

Need any thick board. I used chipboard coz I had it lying around, but anything similar would do. Start by making the half circle. Radius (centre to outside) is 200 - 250. I made mine 200 but would probably go a bit bigger if I used 3mm wall tubing. Don't go smaller. By the way, the tubing I used was 25mm.

Easiest way to cut your quarter circle is to hammer in a nail close to the edge. Tie a piece of string to it, then to the other end wrap it around a pencel till you get to the desired length. Then just scribe your circle (or part circle).

I only had 25mm chipboard so I made 2 quarter pieces and put one on top of the other so that it was thicker.

Then all you do is screw the quarter circle to something solid like a workbench or another large piece of wood, but has to be solid coz you are going to load it up heaps when you try to bend the tube. I actually used the top of the kids cubby house that had a fairly flat roof.

The top rectangle is just the backing stopper. I used a piece of 35x50 but anything would do. I also clamped the tube to this to help get the bend in the right place and just hold it steady.

By the way, I drew in the tube just as a line only to demonstrate how and where it ends up.

To work out where to start the bend (at due north). you will need to add a bit of extra length. ie it will not be 200mm back from your mark. Will be longer. Easy way is just bend your tape measure around the quarter circle and halve it (plus a bit). I think the exact would be pye R squared for the circumference then divide by 8.

With bending the tube (is a cold bend) the piece on the right of the starting point needs to be held as close as possible to the jig so that the straight part stays straight. I didn't do this, but may be a good idea if you have a piece of bigger gal or other metal tubing to slide it over the tube to assist the bending and stop the straight part getting a bend on it, but be very careful not to scratch.

On some of mine I over bent them a little coz the bends were sometimes a little out of shape. This allowed me to open up the bent part where I needed to end up with an even bend.

First bend is the easiest, but the most important. What I did was pay careful attention to how much of the length from both ends reduced. This is important so that you can make allowances for the second bend and then end up with the right length between the 2 bends.

All my bends were with 1.6mm wall. The 3mm wall would probably just take more grunt.

Hope this helps.

When I was there at Brendale, I only noticed 20 and 25mm tube.

Cheech

[blaze]

Hi cheech
thanks for that, good info
cheers
blaze

[SeaSaw]

Thanks All, some great advice there. I will give Justin at Brisbane boat trim a call, sound like someone that can be relied on.

Dazza, Yep it is a 680sf. What area do you live. I would love to have a look at the job on your boat as it is always good to look at different setups before I decide what is right for me. PM me a contact number and I will give you a call. Thanks heaps.

Mark

[dazza]

hi mark,
pm my phone number.
talk soon
cheers
daza