A25 original cockpit enclosure

[kerrye]

Well, I bought all the stainless tubing and fittings to permanently mount a vertical hoop at the front of the aft cabin, mounted in stanchion bases and braced with angled pieces backwards to the cabin top. Decided not to bend it but use 90 degree fittings with eyes at the top corners. I definitely want a system where most of the time, just the top is in place and not a full enclosure and the sides of the cockpit are free of tubing. We have a full enclosure with removable sides on our F-24 and 90% of the time we just use the top.

[DesertAlbin736]

Hey Kerry,

Know this Seaward 25 guy 'sesmith' from Ithaca, NY who posts over on the Trailersailor forum?

When you mentioned the name Kerry, from the Denver area, I immediately thought of the Kerry who was with us on the North Channel cruise last year on their F-24. Apparently, that would be the same Kerry per his post over on the Albin group forum.

We also live near Ithaca NY and have spent a bit of time on the canals here back in our power boat days. Most of our canal time is spent on bicycles now, as sailing them isn't really an option (with the mast up, at least).

[kerrye]

Yes, I know Scott. He had some shaft/coupling problems at the beginning of the North Channel cruise last year. Nice guy.

Heads up on fabric price: The vinyl fabric is less than half the price of Seattle Fabrics on Ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/18-oz-Vinyl-Coa ... Sw7NNULpg6

Stainless tubing is cheaper on Ebay than Sailrite and the tubing fittings at Marine Parts Depot are relatively inexpensive.

[DesertAlbin736]

I can see where the original enclosure shape helped with the motorsailor version. I like Iron Jack's version with the more vertical back panel. I'm still leaning towards buying a HF bender and some 1" stainless tube and bending a piece to permanently mount at the front of the aft cabin, perhaps with some angled braces going backwards to give it more stability. One advantage of that would be that I could carry kayaks using that and the wheelhouse as a rack.

You mean like this? Actually I imagine this might be pretty close to a vision of what you want your enclosure to look like. Whose boat this actually is I don't know, except it appears to be Canadian. I picked this off the internet. We actually have one of these tandem Advanced Elements inflatable kayaks like the one shown in this photo They're the best quality inflatable kayaks we've seen yet. We should use ours more often than we do.

[DesertAlbin736]

This was a picture of Scott's engine he posted on Trailersailor in 2014. Looks like a single cylinder raw water cooled Yanmar 1GM10.

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If one were going to have a sailboat, Seaward would be a good choice. One of our club members has an outboard version Seaward 26RK.

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I once lived in Upstate NY near Schenectady & Saratoga before moving to Arizona. Here's one reason why I don't live there anymore.

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[kerrye]

Yes, that's the kind of enclosure I'm making. I can't see any of the support bars in that picture though, weird. I'll probably split the side panels in two like that one also.

I didn't actually see Scott's engine, just heard the problems as he pulled into the slip near us at the start of the trip. Took some doing to find someone to re-shaft and couple the boat in a few days. Luckily, Russell, at the marina in Spanish is a really nice and resourceful guy.

[kerrye]

Got the frame for my new enclosure built and installed. Was initially going to bend the hoop but once I saw the 90 degree fittings with an eye in the corner I realized they would be more useful. It doesn't interfere with entering or exiting the cockpit and is very strong which I like since I don't have a stern rail, nor do I want one. It provides a very good hand hold. It's slightly higher than the wheelhouse so the bimini should drain forward onto the wheelhouse and then down the sides. The bottom of the hoop is installed in stanchion bases.

[Jeremyvmd]

Looking good! You planning to sew your own canvas or gonna have someone else do it?

[DesertAlbin736]

Save lots of dough, sew your own! Other than being time consuming it's not that hard with a good walking foot machine & follow how to's from Sailrite

[kerrye]

I'm doing my own but not sewing. I am an experienced seamster and I own an industrial sewing machine but I prefer to glue vinyl fabric for projects like this. In my experience, gluing goes quite a bit faster. I'll have to sew some zippers on and some straps to tension the top but all the rest will be glued. I use this fabric and HH-66 cement to glue it. Clear 30mil vinyl for the windows. This material is more waterproof than Sunbrella. Maybe has a shorter life if exposed to UV 24/7, I'm not sure. I made a canoe cover from it 30+ years ago and it's still serviceable but it spends most of its life in the garage. But I made a cockpit cover for my Sea Pearl Tri about 3 years ago and it's been exposed 24/7 since then at a mile high with lots of UV. It's showing some deterioration but it's still holding out water whereas the previous Sunbrella cockpit cover leaked like a sieve.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331669614997?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

[kerrye]

Cut out the top today. The material is 62" wide and as luck would have it, I measured the length of the enclosure from wheelhouse to arch at 62 1/2" so I fudged it to 62". Perfect. Here are some pictures. I'm adding reinforcement on the edges where snaps or twist fasteners (Common Sense fasteners) are to be used. I used 2" masking tape to cut out exactly 2" wide pieces and glued them on to the top at the front using the HH-66 vinyl cement. Cut the material with a straight edge and utility knife with a new blade. I takes two people to attach the 2" reinforcement exactly on the edge of the fabric. Wife helped. Looking good so far. Used a piece of PVC lumber left over from the wheelhouse roof project as a cutting board and clamped the material to the PVC to get a straight cut.

In the past, I have folded the vinyl material over on to itself and glued it for the edges but this time I'm trying just gluing a second piece right on the edge. So far, aesthetically it seems slightly better than the traditional folded over edge. With woven fabrics you need to fold it over to stop the fabric from unraveling but this material doesn't unravel.

[kerrye]

Got the front of the top fitted and installed this afternoon. Back is just held in place by clamps in the photo. Back will have short straps with Fastex buckles which go around the hoop to tension it. So far I've about 3 or 4 hours into making the top. (perhaps less) Triangular pointed exacto knife is perfect tool for making the slits for the twist fasteners and cutting the material out of the middle of the fastener. Much easier than using a razor blade or utility knife.

[kerrye]

Some pictures of the attachment straps. First sewn to patches of the same fabric and then glued to the top. No needle holes thru the top.

[DesertAlbin736]

Good work! Should turn out very nice!

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Meanwhile, sanding work on the bottom job on La Dolce Vita progresses. Working with afternoon temperatures 90 degrees in the shade, fully suited up with spray painter's hazmat suit with hood, googles, ear plugs, cartridge respirator, gloves & face shield. And thank goodness for shade! Dust, grit, & tears! Tomorrow or the next day we lift the boat off the trailer & set on blocks & stands. The boat stands we'll use can be seen in the lower left of the 2nd picture.

Before sanding down through 40+ years & 4 layers of cracked peeling paint...

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Progress prepping for Pettit Hydrocoat ECO water based copper free paint.

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[kerrye]

Got the straps completed. Need to glue down the back corners to square them up. System seems to work well.