'Mary Jo' (modified 1984 27 fc) with new enclosure

[Vic K]

I'm very pleased with the new enclosure , it provides an all weather living area. Now all I need is an AC. Plan to use a roof top unit instead of a marine aire type that would be mounted below. The thought being that since cold air falls, so it would be easier to move the cold air from the 'salon' to the lower cabin than trying to do the reverse.

[JT48348]

Wow! That really looks good. Very impressive. I love the way the rear supports are swept back

Truly a nice job

[tego]

Looks like it was designed that way. Great job Vic! Ben

[Jay Knoll]

Going to be a lot of "great jobs" associated with this thread! Really great!

Jay

[Nancy]

Wow, it looks like it grew there! The rooftop grab rails and hatch are a nice touch.

[DesertAlbin736]

Very impressive indeed! Since I'm near to completing a much smaller and less impressive 35 X 67 inch fiberglass hard top with a pair of teak opening hatches for my A25, I can appreciate how much work goes into a project like this. In your case I notice yours transitions from being slightly arched in the front to flat at the stern. That's no mean feat to get those curves right.

Here's the mold I built to do a fiberglass layup to match the arch in my pilot house roof. But mine is one simple curve and doesn't have to transition from arched to flat.

[JT48348]

CaptVic: So did you come up with the curves for the supports?

DesertA:And how did you come up with the curve for your mold? Did you take a the curve from the exhisting hardtop and just extend it back, and if so did you have to increase the curve?

One of the the things I've noticed is that it appears the hardtop almost has to slope downward as it goes aft. Or is that an illusion?

I know on the A25 some people have either isntalled T-tops or made the hardtop extension narrower than the original hardtop beam. Is this necessary for the A27 also?

[don123]

My hardtop carries the same vertical clearance as it goes aft and it matches the slope of the existing hardtop - I have right at 6' 1" standing headroom in the center. Looking at the boat from the side, it looks 'right' - Very much like it came that way from the factory

The rounded edges match the existing hardtop. I used a section of Schedule 40 8" PVC for the curved edges. I was able to get the double curve (the cambered top and the rounded aft edge) by heating the PVC with an $8 Harbor Freight heat gun as I bent it - Screwed the center and pulled both edges with ratchet tie down straps as we applied the heat. When it cooled, we removed it and it stayed bent in the proper shape

We faired the PVC into the 'sandwich' of the hardtop (1/4 ply top and bottom laminated to a 1/2 inch foam core which has a fiberglass skin on both sides) using West System G-Flex epoxy which sticks very well to PVC. A couple layers of fiberglass cloth over the top of everything and about 2 gallons of epoxy resin and it's now ready for paint. We put a piece of 1/4 inch birch bead board on the bottom for an attractive 'ceiling' after we gave it 3 coats of Helmsman Marine clear urethane. Still have to get the bead board installed on the existing part of the hardtop, but gotta get the mast all welded up first

Don

[Vic K]

JT,
I'm not sure of what 'curves' you are referring to.
I cut approx 6 inches off the back of the original pilothouse and matched the extension to the backside. There was a SS fishing 'bench' on top of the pilothouse when I bought the boat. I believe there had been more than one chubby Cajun using said chair over the years leaving very little to no arch. The top is curved in the front and flat aft. The top is primarily two layers of 1/4 plywood epoxied sandwiched over fir beams and cypress rafters. Everything is epoxied and glassed. I'm an easy 200 lbs and have no problem walking on the top.
Vic

[JT48348]

My bad I wasn't referring to your boats, they both look like they came from the factory. Your roof lines follow the lines nicely.
I was referring to the picture below, which I thought was interesting. I tried to find the photos earlier but couldn't locate them.

It might not be an Albin 27, could be a Albin 30? or maybe a 27 with an extra "foot" added on the waterline in some type of fashion.
This might also be a Albin 34. The advertisement came from the Dutch Albin 25 site.

I thought the roof looked like it sloped. It appealed to me, but it could be an optical illusion

[don123]

I believe it is a 34 - The OEM roof does appear sloped as you say, so naturally the extension slopes as well

Don

[JT48348]

When you guys followed your lines, did you follow the OEM roof, the gunwale line, the aft cabin top, or the hull deck joint?

Or a combination of all or some of the above

I really like the pvc idea, seems like an excellent way to get everything in line.

[don123]

I cut off just enough of the back of the OEM hardtop to get a straight line. The top was almost flat (no camber to it) so I pushed up the center of it an inch or a little more using a 1" stainless tube which mounts just aft of the engine bay doors - You can see it in the picture. I stretched a string from the front of the hardtop aft to see how high the rear supports needed to be and went from there. I used two heavy epee wood beams (1 1/4 by 2 1/2") on either side to support the hardtop. My ~200lb dink with 5 HP outboard will go on the top

I think ideally, it would be best to make a mold like Desert Albin did and lay up the top upside down off the boat and then install it when it's done, but it seems I never do anything the easy way. A 100% glass top would be preferable to my wood/foam/wood lay-up sandwich I think, but I opted to build mine on the boat, right side up, one piece at a time

The PVC for the rounded edges was almost a necessity since I was building it on the boat, right side up - Upside down in a mold would have made the rounded edges a simple thing to do in fiberglass . . . . the PVC option was a bit complicated and very time consuming, but they turned out great in the end - The junction between the PVC and the sandwich occurs right above the epee beam - Both are glued and screwed into the beam. The 10' section of 8" schedule 40 pipe cost me $88 - I think you could probably do them in glass for about the same money

I could not believe how flimsy the OEM top was. I'll be adding a stainless support under the middle of it to improve rigidity and to support the mast. The mast will serve as a mount for my VHF antenna, the Cellular antenna, the Wi-Fi antenna, the 12" TV antenna, the anchor and bow lights as well as a place to fly a flag. Pulling a single detent pin, the mast will lower flat on the aft hardtop (when the dink isn't up there) to make it easier to clear low bridges and when trailering the boat. The stainless tube under the mast will run 30 degrees forward to the dash and allow me to hide the mess of wiring to the mast

Any more progress on your enlarged head project?

Don