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Old 06-28-2022, 12:55 PM   #11
rslifkin
Guru
 
City: Rochester, NY
Vessel Name: Hour Glass
Vessel Model: Chris Craft 381 Catalina
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 7,553
I had an idea while working this morning, so I did an experiment during lunch. Added stays (temporary using 3/8" line for now) from the bimini frame to the davits. See the pictures below.

The stays attach where the 3 pieces of canvas meet in the first picture (there's a gap to feed them through) and pull down and back on the aft bow of the bimini just above the angled supports. Those angled supports get loaded in compression and hit the rail right next to a stanchion, so the load gets pretty much transferred right to the deck as compression load. That part seems to work well enough that after tensioning the lines a good bit the canvas wasn't any tighter than when I started, so nothing in the bimini frame and upper deck rail is flexing.

The lines have a bit of stretch which means there's still a little movement, but less than 1/4 of what I had before. And the stretch means load should get shared between the stays and the stern rail (and swim platform supports).

This probably isn't the ultimate solution, but for now it's a good start and maybe part of the final solution. And I've got 6'3" of headroom to walk under the stays, which is plenty for me (and a little more than many other places on this boat). So they can be left in place all the time.
Attached Thumbnails
PXL_20220628_174555469.jpg   PXL_20220628_174654158.jpg   PXL_20220628_174702785.jpg  
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