Bimini Advice

Al - if you have a piece of sunbrella long enough to bridge the gap port to starboard, and six or eight inches wide, we can snap on to both free standing biminis so you don't get rain through the middle. Just stitch up finished edges on a big rectangle that can fit over the gap and have a good allowance on either side. We'll snap ya up.

Infact, if your primary is in good shape, and you have enough fabric, we can remove those non zipper pockets and put zippers in there for you.

Pineapple Girl, lightly wash with any gentle soap, but get some 303 Protectant and apply it at least once a year.

Also, if anyone has an issue with mildew growing on the fabric or zippers, MaryKate makes a magic Mildew remover. I'm sold on it. And Defender has the cheapest prices.

I'm not a canvas worker, I just play one on TV.

ARoss said:

. We will be at MC Yacht Basin Fri/Sat night of the Seafood Festival; maybe we will catch up with you.

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We'll be over on the Town Docks....let's catch up. You need to make a reservation at the City Kitchen while you're there!!

Or maybe at the yacht basin...

GonzoF1 said:

Besides, I'd be bored with the color after 10 years and want to change it anyway.

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We can relate to that. The ubiquitous and old fashioned blue is about our least favorite canvas cover. We would much prefer black or really dark blue or green.

But we're sort of stuck because the boat came with so much canvas and the cost of replacing it all just to change the color is not cost effective in our eyes. Particularly since most of it is still in very good shape. And if my wife started making the new things out of a different color the mix of that with the existing blue we think would look even worse.

So while she hates doing it, every time she makes a new cover for something she forces herself to use the blue so the boat doesn't start looking like something out of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

In your case with a beat-up bimini and not a half a ton of other canvas on the boat, this would be the ideal time to get a new bimini in a new color.

By the way, something you may already know but my wife learned the hard way, there is Sunbrella and there is Sunbrella. She got a great deal on a roll of blue (gack) Sunbrella on a sewing club trip to Portland, Oregon a few years ago. She was very proud of herself for finding and buying it. The first thing she made with it was a good-size patch on the forward half of our flying bridge cover.

Well..... it turns out that you can get Sunbrella in a UV/fade-resistant version and you can get it without this protection. Guess which one she had purchased. So while the patch fabric is still holding up well, it faded in short order (within a year) to a light blue gray. So that part of the boat does, in fact, look like something from The Grapes of Wrath.

So if you weren't aware of this already, made sure you buy the UV protected/fade resistant Sunbrella for your new bimini project and not the other version. It's all Sunbrella and the colors are identical. At first........

Marin said:

But we're sort of stuck because the boat came with so much canvas and the cost of replacing it all just to change the color is not cost effective in our eyes.

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It would be a heap cheaper if you would give up the love affair with Tanera thread *zing*

In my experience...stitching almost always fails prior to the fabric...if switching to gold thread would help...I'd give it my vote...

GonzoF1 said:

It would be a heap cheaper if you would give up the love affair with Tanera thread *zing*

.

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You're right but since my wife's initial spool of Tenara is starting to get down there I've seen that the price of the stuff has been coming down. But the real cost of replacing our canvas would be the labor. Not just the cutting and sewing and fastener installation itself but the time to take measurements on the boat, fittings, etc. The old canvas can't be used as patterns because over all these years it's stretched out a lot. So the shop would have to sort of start from scratch only now they'd have to match the existing fastners on the boat. It's a big, time-consuming job or so my wife tells me.

So we do what we can to keep the "blue stuff" going.

What we need is a boat fire. Not ours, but a nearby boat that's upwind of ours. Another GB36 owner in our marina had his boat totally sooted out earlier this year by a fire on the sailboat opposite his on the dock that burned the sailboat to the waterline at which point it sank.

In addition to a complete "de-sooting" of the GB36 in the yard all the boat's canvas was replaced. Total bill for the cleaning, new canvas, etc. was $35,000. He had his canvas replaced with the same color--- black. But if this happened to us we would use the opportunity to get rid of the blue.

Marin, ours was forest green. I'm almost done replacing all of it with Linen. (beige) One project at a time! DIY is soooo much cheaper. I'm sure you and your wife can redo yours too!

Besslb said:

One project at a time! DIY is soooo much cheaper. I'm sure you and your wife can redo yours too!

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This was taken the other year before our dock was replaced but as you can see, we have a LOT of canvas on the boat. My wife would have a good portion of her life over the next few years mapped out if she remade it all herself.

Anode said:

Available at Sailrite -

Tenara Lifetime Thread - UV Stable Rot Resistant Outdoor Thread - Tenara

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Quality stuff I'm sure, but it seems a little comical that thread has a "lifetime warranty". Sure they might replace any failed thread, but it's the sewing that costs the money. They don't say they will pay for the labor to restich what failed.

As for the expected life of any marine canvas and thread, a lot has to do with the exposure it gets. UV light (in southern areas) and wind can cause canvas and thread to age quickly compared to northern areas with less UV exposure and possibly less wind.

rwidman said:

....compared to northern areas with less UV exposure and possibly less wind.

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The reduced UV might be correct. The less wind isn't. I WISH we had less wind. Storm gusts in our marina (measured by the weather station on top of Bellingham Cold Storage's ice house) are typically 60 mph and the last few years have seen gusts in excess of 80 mph. Sustained winds in these storms, which during the winter can march through in succession every five or six days, are typically 45 to 55 mph.

The high winds are why we keep our boat's back to the wind and why diligent attention has to be paid to seams. If a seam starts to go, particularly in the winter, the canvas cover will most likely be destroyed in a matter of weeks even if the canvas itself is in good shape or even new.

In addition to its resistant qualities and long life, Tenara is also extremely strong. That alone makes it worth using, at least around here.

rwidman said:

Quality stuff I'm sure, but it seems a little comical that thread has a "lifetime warranty". Sure they might replace any failed thread, but it's the sewing that costs the money. They don't say they will pay for the labor to restich what failed.

As for the expected life of any marine canvas and thread, a lot has to do with the exposure it gets. UV light (in southern areas) and wind can cause canvas and thread to age quickly compared to northern areas with less UV exposure and possibly less wind.

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I just turned 70, and my boat will be 40 next year. I think a 10 year life on the thread I used will get me to a point where neither me nor the boat is going to care!

rwidman said:

Quality stuff I'm sure, but it seems a little comical that thread has a "lifetime warranty". Sure they might replace any failed thread, but it's the sewing that costs the money. They don't say they will pay for the labor to restich what failed.

As for the expected life of any marine canvas and thread, a lot has to do with the exposure it gets. UV light (in southern areas) and wind can cause canvas and thread to age quickly compared to northern areas with less UV exposure and possibly less wind.

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Last I checked the climate info and pilot charts and a lifetime of sailing from Miami to New York areas...usually the higher lattitudes have higher average wind speeds except for events like hurricanes (but there are plenty of 75mph+ nor'easters to deal with!!

rwidman said:

...As for the expected life of any marine canvas and thread, a lot has to do with the exposure it gets. UV light (in southern areas) and wind can cause canvas and thread to age quickly compared to northern areas with less UV exposure and possibly less wind.

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Ron: You're absolutely right about the exposure, although I'm not sure the wind is an issue if properly designed. We cruise in the tropics and it's a different game for varnishes, biminis and paints with the UV. We are trying the Tenara thread for the first time after having to restitch UV resistant thread after less then 4 years when the Sunbrella still has life. What I find interesting is that the company that is doing our canvas work, is one of top referred to companies in the area, they were low bid and are using Tenara thread. I'm not sure there's a down side for us. I'll report back in 4 years.

psneeld said:

Last I checked the climate info and pilot charts and a lifetime of sailing from Miami to New York areas...usually the higher lattitudes have higher average wind speeds except for events like hurricanes (but there are plenty of 75mph+ nor'easters to deal with!!

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Check again. There are plenty of northern localities where high winds are uncommon.

ARoss said:

I just turned 70, and my boat will be 40 next year. I think a 10 year life on the thread I used will get me to a point where neither me nor the boat is going to care!

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I use that logic as well from time to time.

I think wind has a large affect on fabric. Even on the best fitting bimini, wind would pull the fabric away from the thread holes and elongate them over time. That's why I am saying that no matter what thread you use, the fabric around it will begin to fail too and why I think it's a waste to use lifetime thread. At least on a bimini, maybe not so much on a railing cover, but there are lots of covers (our helm cover is one) that IS under some multi-directional stress where wind would add to the loads the seams are already under.

I am not saying the thread isn't better because it clearly is. I just think that it is overkill for most purposes. I have always been an advocate for driving to drive the market with my wallet. And in my own little way, try and keep the "marine grade" industry ripoff to a minimum. Use it when you need to, find alternatives whenever possible or appropriate. That's all I am sayin' (*steps down off soapbox*)

rwidman said:

Check again. There are plenty of northern localities where high winds are uncommon.

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I did...reread the section that talks about rising and sinking air at 30, 60 and 90 degrees latitude and how the Coriolis effect turns that into wind......and how being near water makes a difference too...

You have to love all that Navy meteorology that I had in flight training...plus living form Miami to Alaska and being underway from the Arctic to the Antarctic and being the Aviation departments weather guy on all those trips...

Marin said:

We wash our canvas periodically using a cleaner my wife gets from the canvas company she uses....I do know it's important to wash it twice and rinse it very thoroughly. She also treats it twice with 303 and even that application has a wet-dry process she learned from the canvas company.

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Marin, is she washing in the washing machine? THANKS

How much does the "life time" thread really add to the cost of a new bimini? Any body have any idea?

You can buy a 1595 yard spool of Tenara thread which is simlar in weight to V-92 thread for $129.00 from Sailrite.

Tenara Lifetime Thread - UV Stable Rot Resistant Outdoor Thread - Tenara

Pineapple Girl said:

Marin, is she washing in the washing machine? THANKS

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Jennifer: I was looking up Tenara (I'm waiting for paint to dry) and found this.

Care & Cleaning Sunbrella Marine Grade Fabric Video

Larry M said:

How much does the "life time" thread really add to the cost of a new bimini? Any body have any idea?

You can buy a 1595 yard spool of Tenara thread which is simlar in weight to V-92 thread for $129.00 from Sailrite.

Tenara Lifetime Thread - UV Stable Rot Resistant Outdoor Thread - Tenara

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I can't imagine it's much if you are a pro...the cost of the fabric and labor has got to be almost all of it...the thread can't be much and the price differential is even smaller.

Now if you are a DIYer and have to buy a whole spool.....

Pineapple Girl said:

Marin, is she washing in the washing machine? THANKS

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She does for the smaller and newer pieces if they have good seams or she has redone them with Tenara. But the oldest and/or larger pieces of canvas like the big flying bridge covers and dinghy cover we wash by hand in a plastic tub we take up to the boat.

While she has redone many of the seams in these pieces the seams that appear to still be sound she leaves alone. But she quickly found out that the action of a washing machine can sometimes cause the thread in the older seams to break and come out. Washing by hand in the tub greatly reduces the chances of this happening. Eventually these seams will have to be redone but the gentler washing at least puts that day off for awhile.

PS--- I took a look at the Sunbrella cleaning video Larry posted the link to and this is pretty much what we do. We probably don't wash off the flying bridge cover as often as we should, though. I'll have to start doing that more often, particularly as we have a degree of soot in the air from the nearby railyard. The main difference I see from the video is what my wife uses for the cleaner when she washes our canvas. It's something she gets from the canvas shop (which does a lot of marine canvas) and it's supposedly tailored specfically for canvas.

Thanks Marin and Larry. We've put some things in the washer and they don't seem to come out particularly clean-I need to investigate canvas specific cleaners. Other things I've been afraid to wash that way, like the Bimini of questionable age and condition! We do have a large tub... I'll find some cleaner and try the the Bimini in the tub.

I love how my phone capitalizes Bimini.

Pineapple Girl said:

I love how my phone capitalizes Bimini.

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So does my iPad and the spellcheckers on our computers. The people who created the spelling data probably never heard of a bimini, only Bimini.

Many of todays marine motorists are ex sailors , so may still have their old sewing machine.

Building anything is complex , but restiching a seam , no big deal.