Upgrades = New Bimini

Well the SeawaterPro Water maker is in.. now we are getting the new bimini welded up. So excited to see it come together.

Looks great so far.

Comodave said:

Looks great so far.

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We are excited about it. Hopefully all will work perfectly.

Old bimini taking it down so we can move the boom up so it will be usable again with the new bimini

Damn that is sweet

Is this a boat ?

Pics of new Bimini, cleaned up, washed, etched, and painted with three coats of Sherwin Williams Duraplate 235 Multipurpose 2 part Epoxy, primer and paint in one, tinted and suitable for under water use.

Pic # 1: Top view of one half of Bimini. Note 6 ea hard points on top of Bimini to attach solar panel mounting rails.
Also, doubler attached over attach points for hanging chairs, and over attachment locations for vertical uprights.

Pic # 2: View of both halves, hanging after painting.

Pic # 3: underside of one half, Note rat holes to run conduit for aft deck lights.

Pics 4 & 5: Aft support "truss" bolted to aft end of Bimini in middle, also functions as boom support cradle. (I tend to over build stuff)

Pic # 6: Two uprights. Schedule 80, 2 7/8" aluminum with base plate, and mounting tab to fit between tabs on underside of Bimini, visible in Pic # 1.

All aluminum is 6061.

Now we just need to figure out how to get each 7' x 10', 300lb Bimini half onto the boat . . .

I'm so jealous, every time I look at my worthless bimini I dream about what you are building.

Thomramzes said:

Is this a boat ?

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It's a 50' Robert Beebe custom design that was built in the Philippines. And it's floats... so yes. it's a boat.

Another pic of the assembled Bimini, prior to painting.

I’m curious…who is doing the work? So they do this custom work regularly? I’m looking for someone to do something like that for my 4788…thanks

Timi, we did the design work, drew it up on CAD program, and cut all the pieces out on our CNC Plasma table at our shop in Kentucky prior to coming out to Washington. Then we found a local guy here in Port Orchard to do the welding. I helped with the fitting while he welded. When finished, I cleaned it all up, and painted it. We will also install it. If you are interested, I can get you his contact info. I felt that he was very reasonable, and has the skills to make the welding look easy! Total cost to us, including materials (purchased in Kentucky, NOT in Washington State, where the materials run about 3X as much . . .), welding, paint, etc, doing our own design and helping with the fitting out, plus paying the welder, all in, we spent about 1/4 what it would have cost to have one "professionally" made. Plus I made changes/upgrades along the way that didn't add much cost to the project, but ended up getting us a much more useful bimini.

It's on!!

We did it, it fit and we are happy, tired and relieved! A friend brought it out to the boat on his smaller boat and we lifted it with the boom. The top was in two parts weighing around 300lbs each, but it worked. Still need to do shims for the foot part of the uprights as the deck is crowned.

Looks great!

Laura and Scot
Wow! That will make a huge difference to your enjoyment of Muirgen!

Nicely done.

This makes all the hard work worth it.

You look way too comfortable. You should be working on the boat.

Comodave said:

You look way too comfortable. You should be working on the boat.

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Yeah... probably should, but it's to tempting to just Not

I went and did the last job of the winter on our boat today. Now we just have to wait until the new tops get finished and the seats reinstalled and we can launch.

Comodave said:

I went and did the last job of the winter on our boat today. Now we just have to wait until the new tops get finished and the seats reinstalled and we can launch.

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Awesome. sounds like perfect timing.

No, perfect timing would have been to have the tops and seats done when they promised, the middle of April…

Comodave said:

No, perfect timing would have been to have the tops and seats done when they promised, the middle of April…

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Ugh.. I hate stuff like that. We have a friend that went to get hauled out to do his bottom and check his transmission for a leak. They didn't even touch the boat almost the entire first week,told him the contract he signed allowed them two weeks when he complained. Then they finally got around to looking at transmission and found out they need parts that they have to order. Needless to say he's not scheduled to splash back in until 17 days instead of two weeks and he couldn't live on the boat the whole time so had to pay for living elsewhere. Not sure what happens if they take longer then the two weeks, but I'm guessing nothing.

In the past I would have done the canvas work myself but arthritis doesn’t allow that much sewing anymore. The company that is doing the work is the best company in our area. But unfortunately the owner contracted Covid and was down for almost a month. I am not happy but I really can’t be too mad when he is late due to Covid. Oh well…

"And the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon....."