![]() ![]() Now, open the top and check its position, making sure it covers the console completely. Just make sure to position it forward enough that it won't get bent if you tilt the engine up while the top is down. This is where you want it to sit in the folded-down position so that it's out of the way when you're fishing. The new top may not fit exactly into the holes where the old one was located lay the top down as far aft as possible, just forward of your outboard. You'll need an assistant to help hold it in place. Once the whole thing is put together, you fold it up and set it in the boat. ![]() Then it was time to complete final assembly, fastening the bows to each other with "eye ends", nylon fittings that fit on the end of the pipes and have a hole for the connector screw, and "jaw slides", which fit over the main support pipes and allow connection to the middle and front support bows. Some fit in pockets, some are secured with a washered screw. Slide on the support straps on each side during this step. I laid it out on the dock upside down and threaded each of the four top bows through the pre-sewn pockets provided. The next step was to install the nylon top itself. (Be careful not to over-tighten and strip the threads-aluminum is a soft metal.) My top, an 8-footer (2.44 m), had four bows.īimini installation kits include everything right down to the necessary Allen-type wrenches and support straps. Slide them together, align a couple of screw holes at each connection and secure them with number 12 aluminum screws. The two support pieces are bent in 90-degree arcs, and the center connection, which holds the nylon top itself in place, is straight. One held the aluminum bows or supports, which take up little space until they are assembled because each comes in three pieces. Lighter colors weather less noticeably than darker colors, though, other things being equal. There are also plenty of colors to choose from one that matches the trim of your boat is likely to look best, at least when new. There’s a selection of top materials and, generally speaking, the more durable the top, the more expensive. And Bimini lengths, bow to stern, range from 4’ (1.22 m) to 8’ (2.44 m) with most providers obviously, the longer the top, the more shade, but also the higher the cost. The height can be whatever is desired to want within reason-just allow enough headspace for taller guests. The width is not the width of the boat, but the width between the inwales, for an inside installation, or from the screw points on top of the gunwales. The critical part here is getting the measurement for the top bow supports exactly right. I ordered my replacement from one of many online selections. ![]() Some kits include the “canvas” only, while others include the aluminum bows and fittings for a complete replacement. Modular Bimini tops can now be ordered via the Internet, and anyone with a drill, a screwdriver and a Saturday afternoon to spare can install their own top. And getting another top installed by the pros meant I was going to have to pull the boat, trailer it to town and leave it to sit, probably for weeks, while I waited for the new top to be scoped out, ordered and then installed.įortunately, there is a better way to go, for those who don't mind applying a bit of their own elbow grease, and it can save money as well as time. Unfortunately, my failure to replace the straps now meant I needed a whole new top the old one was shredded, and the bows were bent beyond reshaping. One end of the main top support cut a gouge a foot (30.48 cm) long and a quarter-inch (6.35 mm) deep into the inwale as it was blasted backward by the force of the wind on the top if that sharp-edged aluminum support had hit one of us, we would have been in for a trip to the emergency room. In retrospect, my buddy and I were lucky neither of us was hurt. The only thing that kept the whole thing from sinking was one good strap left on the backside of the top. Both let go almost simultaneously, and the top then ballooned up like a parachute, catching the wind and quickly ripping the support screws for the top bows out of the inwales. The bow stays or straps, weakened by years of exposure to the elements as my boat sat on the cradle at my dock, had suddenly decided that enough was enough. One minute, we were motoring down Tampa Bay at 30 miles an hour in my SeaPro, eyes peeled for gulls that might tip us off to a mackerel school, the next there was what seemed like an explosion and the top was gone. My six-year-old Bimini top did not die quietly. Bimini tops last a long time if carefully stowed between trips, but they do eventually need replacement-and this can be a do-it-yourself project. ![]()
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