The following sketch shows how Little Dipper's bimini is rigged.  It is a prototype, and very successful, based on a much cleaner design by Jim Harrison.  No holes were made in the boat to install it.  It was built and installed in a little less than 3 hours.

*  The bimini fabric is a trimming from the ubiquitous blue tarp.

*  The battens are pieces of 3/4" square scrap wood.

*  The tarp remnant is secured to the battens with bulldog clips.

*  The struts are 3/4" pvc tubing.

*  They are held to the ends of the battens at the top with screw-hooks set in the ends of the battens.

*  The lower ends of the struts are secured to the rails with detent pins (the most expensive part of the project).

*  I secured two eyes to the rails with hose clamps to receive the detent pins.

The forward end of the bimini is attached to the shrouds with adjustable-length lines, clipped to shrouds with pennant hooks.

The aft end of the bimini is positioned to allow the aft-mounted main sheet to clear it, and has presented no hang-up problems so far.

The crossed lines to the stern provide lateral stability and keep the fabric tight between the battens.

The boom vang also operates with no problems.

I can slither under the bimini over the cabin top to go forward when docking, etc.

As everything is adjustable, I tune it to the requirements of the day.  It works well up to about 15 mph of wind.  The next version will use aluminum struts, possibly salvaged from aluminum walking canes to allow easy length adjustment.

The practical limit of the design is probably in the 20 mph range, and you probably wouldn't want that much of a wind-catcher even at that speed.
 
 

Q:  A few questions/clarifications, if you please:  Per previous post, I assume you are using a pair of eye screws to fasten the rear batten to each strut.  Where did you get the rail pivots?  What do they look like?

A:  I rigged the struts as follows:

Per Eliott Cherry, you can get nice stainless rail-mount pivots from West Marine for about $28 each.

There is also the Borchert bimini which can completely enclose the cockpit. There are six pictures total.  Mr. Borchert has written an article about it - it's more of a history than a "how-to."  He had his professionally made.  His email is "jamesborchert@netscape.net". His address: Jim Borchert, 4456 Gilmer Lane, Richmond Heights, OH 44143 (216) 383-0247.

Last modified 3/4/01