Shade Shade Shade

I know this is not everyone's cup of tea, but we did this and it works beautifully. I built a frame over the bow and sides of the boat and then had our canvas lady make a cover to fit the frame. The cover zips on so it only takes about five minutes at most to remove the canvas (a little longer to put on). It cost me about $2,100 all together, but in this south Florida sun it is worth every penny. The canvas is Sunbrella. I ordered the Sunbrella View like we have on our windows but they sent me regular Sunbrella. After much debate we ended up using the Sunbrella.

Nice

I know some may find it a bit unorthodox, but I get it! Anything the provides shade helps. At our last slip the evening sun would shine through the door on our aft deck for a couple of hours later I the day. So bright you couldn't see the TV. We had a bit of Sunbrella left from a project and I had it hemmed up and applied snaps on one side. I would snap it on like a curtain at the rear edge of our sun deck, effectively blocking the evening sun. What a difference it made. Would unsnap and fold it up that night.

Very nice, and as a southern boater, I understand it. Our slip is an east/west with the bow facing east. Sun covers on the helm deck glass windows provide the shade. We have a Palm Beach style cockpit cover we use to provide shade from the afternoon sun. It sure does cut down on the air conditioning load. We also get to live outside more which is a good thing.

It doesn't do anything for the looks of the boat but you did a very nice job of it. I understand the need, shade is a valuable comodity in South Florida. All told, you did good.

Thanks all, It really has helped. We have only one AC unit. There was no way it could keep up before. Now it does a nice job.

Very nice job and it serves a purpose that leads to more enjoyment on the water. Where I'm located in California the sun heats up boat cabins to the point of being unbearable too.

I get it and I like it.Looks good to me.

Ok i am on the last leg of my refit i have a question for the Vet cruisers, I was going to put levelor blinds on the side windows and the stern window and door glass, On the Forward wheel house windows i have checked out that new White screen that you can see out of but cant really see inside they claim it blocks 90% of the light transfer? Or would i be better off with outside covers for the side glass as well ? i normally run from NC to Fla during the winter months and back to nc for the summer. Live aboard about 50% of the time. Last Boat i had the pull blinds from West marine it blocked the light pretty well but heat would boil out of the sides of the blind into the cabin and wheel house. any ideas or solutions that were used i am all ears !

honeybadger said:

Ok i am on the last leg of my refit i have a question for the Vet cruisers, I was going to put levelor blinds on the side windows and the stern window and door glass, On the Forward wheel house windows i have checked out that new White screen that you can see out of but cant really see inside they claim it blocks 90% of the light transfer? Or would i be better off with outside covers for the side glass as well ? i normally run from NC to Fla during the winter months and back to nc for the summer. Live aboard about 50% of the time. Last Boat i had the pull blinds from West marine it blocked the light pretty well but heat would boil out of the sides of the blind into the cabin and wheel house. any ideas or solutions that were used i am all ears !

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What exactly are you wanting from the window coverings,stop heat,stop light,allow light in while stopping as much heat as possible and keeping out prying eyes?To me,outside window coverings are for storage or long periods docked/anchored.I have come to like the cloth type accordion blinds for homes.

Yea Ben2go i am leaning toward the cloth blinds for all the windows with the exception of the forward wheel house windows. And a dual action lower the light inside the boat along with lowering the heat transfer. I could use the cloth shades on forward windows also,

I'd go with outside covers so you keep the hot air betweeen the covers and your windows on the outside.

We have outside coverings for all the windows. On the large rectangular windows in the salon, we use Phifertex, the regular. They say it has a 70% shade factor. And it works well with the over hang on the side decks. The Phifertex also acts as bug screens for the salon. In the pilot house we have a discontinued Sunbrela product that reduces the UV by 90+%. It was taken off the market because it sagged very quickly but it has held up well.

On the fore-deck we needed shade the same as Ready2Go. Here we used regular Sunbrela that is tied to the rails. It allows the forward hatch and center pilot house window to be opened in rain and it keeps the heat of the deck. It's also good to 35 knots and takes only a few minutes to put up or take down.

A couple more pics of our setup.

A big plus of those covers would be protection for teak decks. Our fully covered flybridge teak is pristine after 30 years, whereas the foredeck teak is up for replacement.
Honeybadger,we have the "see out,can`t see in" covers on our cabin side windows,it is good and you don`t need interior curtains, we also have it enclosing the cockpit where it gets rolled it up for better vision when onboard, except if it`s raining when it also keeps the rain out. BruceK

If I'm not mistaken...don't those window covers lock seeing in only during the day? At night with lights on the opposite happens???

psneeld said:

If I'm not mistaken...don't those window covers lock seeing in only during the day? At night with lights on the opposite happens???

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Hope not,we`ve got it on the V- berth, shower and head windows, as well as the main cabin.
No,really,it is ok at night too.It is obviously not as good as having nothing at all there, but it is ok for vision out. Ours are white,I think it comes in black too. BruceK

BruceK said:

Hope not,we`ve got it on the V- berth, shower and head windows, as well as the main cabin.
No,really,it is ok at night too.It is obviously not as good as having nothing at all there, but it is ok for vision out. Ours are white,I think it comes in black too. BruceK

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I guess it depends which kind you have...the kind that came with my boat and a lot of others I have seen...yes...you can see in when the interior is pretty well lit.

psneeld said:

If I'm not mistaken...don't those window covers lock seeing in only during the day? At night with lights on the opposite happens???

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Yup. The Phifertex, 70% at night you can see in. The 90% Sunbrela product, no.

When the interior of a room is brighter than the exterior, you can easily see in through a window. When it is dimmer, it is very hard to see in. This is true for all spaces (homes, boats etc.)

I was looking for privacy options in the pilot house and borrowed some Sunbrella 90% screen in white and black. With a 60 watt light in the pilot house, it was very easy to see in at night with either color screen, and you could recognize faces, the computer screen and colors and type of clothing.

This material would be fine during the day to cut down sunlight into the cabin while still allowing some exterior visibility. I could recommend that.

For privacy, I ended up with a Sunbrella curtain with a white cloth backing hung on a pull rod. For heat and safety when leaving the boat for several days, I put canvas on the exterior using snaps around the windows.

Just like at home there are a million ways to stop the sun light from coming in, On the hook i think it would be ok but on a dock i don't think i would want everyone that walked by to see me in the salon.

honeybadger said:

Just like at home there are a million ways to stop the sun light from coming in, On the hook i think it would be ok but on a dock i don't think i would want everyone that walked by to see me in the salon.

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OMG! I have been vacuuming in the nude at night.

Moonstruck said:

OMG! I have been vacuuming in the nude at night.

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When we bought FlyWright, she came with the exterior sunscreens for the windshield and side windows and an additional solid canvas for the windshield. You can see from the picture below that the windshield cover wraps around the side to also cover the forward side window on each side. We added interior blinds and shades after a couple of years of ownership.

We use the side sunscreens almost full time during the summer months. They provide cabin cooling and daytime privacy. Folks who have anchored near us are often surprised that the screens are opaque when they come aboard since they can't see through them during the day. We find they also provide good sun protection to the varnished teak window frames. We leave the side screens up unless we're traveling though areas with a lot of wind spray, such as San Pablo Bay in northern CA. When the screens get wet, the visibility through them is terrible. We never drive from either helm with either windshield cover in place. We have found that always having the option to drive from the lower helm without removing covers outweighs the small innconvenience of removing/reattaching them before flybridge steering.



At anchor during the day, we attach the windshield sunscreen to keep the cabin cooler. If we need more sun protection or night privacy, we can install the windshield canvas and close the blinds and shades inside the cabin.

(bad picture taken after blind installation and before cabin cleanup.)


We used 2 inch faux wood blinds with drawstrings on the windows and matching no-string pull-down fabric shades on the doors. The reasons for this was the shorter 'stack' of the fabric shade when stowed above the doors and the ease of operation of the shades when entering or exiting the salon. Plus, the Admiral didn't want fabric shades or curtains in the galley where cooking or dishwashing splashes would be more difficult to clean.

Since our interior fabrics were tan and beige (by the male PO), we decided to add burgundy color tapes to the blinds to bring the exterior color into the interior.

The top photo also shows our breeze booster installed over the fwd hatch which substantially improves airflow through the cabin. When paired with the onboard 12V fans and our low humidity, the cabin stays comfortable without air conditioning, even on our hottest summer days.

Moonstruck said:

OMG! I have been vacuuming in the nude at night.

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When you hear the vacuum hummin'
Don't come a runnin'!

FlyWright said:

When you hear the vacuum hummin'
Don't come a runnin'!

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:lol:

FlyWright said:

When you hear the vacuum hummin'
Don't come a runnin'!

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The saving grace is that I have a body like a Greek god, and I'm lite on my toes. So there.

By the way, why does look like a flight simulator?

You mean the greek god Silenus?




I ran across this pic of your childhood obsession with vacuums. You were a cute little guy before you learned about nude vacuum use. Is Moonstruck a variation of the name Moonsuck?

Close, but this is really me.

OMG Don and Al you guys are insane.

We have a similar set up to Al where we have the partial visibilty sunbrella stuff on the outside of all the windows. We got the max blocking on the windscreen and doors and the slightly less blocking on the rest, as they have blinds on the inside for privacy (windscreen and doors don't anymore, first thing to go). We also have full sunbrella for the windscreen and doors that snaps on top of the other or can snap directly to the boat. It is so hot where we are now that we've had the full sunbrella on for awhile now. We have never had a situation where we unexpectedly had to drive from below so we normally leave those covers on. If we are planning to drive from below we completely uncover the windscreen and doors. The visibility through the other windows is acceptable with the screens on. The sunbrella screens also work well as bug screens.

You can kinda see the canvas is the photo.

Pineapple Girl said:

OMG Don and Al you guys are insane.

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Truer words, etc.