New Bimini Fitting

Nirvana ... trying on her new bimini

A while back I was planning our new bimini and placed an order with a local seamstress.  We've had the bimini for several weeks now, but with Ken's injuries we never had a chance to set up our bimini frame and see how our new bimini fits ... until now.

This past weekend Ken and I cleaned and polished our aluminum bimini frame with Nevr-Dull, a product we've used to polish the chrome on our motorcycles.  We love this stuff and it worked great on our frame, really bringing it back to life.  After installing the bimini frame, we were able to zip on our new bimini.  This is a nice change from our older bimini, as it didn't have zippers and was a lot harder to put on and take off.

Since the bimini can be taken off easily, we didn't plan on leaving it on.  We just wanted to make sure that it fit as it should and didn't need any adjustments before I spray it with Sunbrella's recommend protector, 303 Fabric Guard.  We didn't have the bimini perfectly centered on the frame, but we were able to see that it fits just fine.  However, we did notice that the Strataglass window was kinda buckled and needed to be pulled tighter and re-sewn.  We also didn't care for the unfinished look of the window.  The edges of the Strataglass aren't covered in fabric on the outside, so we're going to have the seamstress add some Sunbrella around the edges to dress it up a little and give it a finished, professional look.  The interior of the window is fine, which has a removable piece of Sunbrella fabric held on with industrial strength Velcro.  

Notice the buckled Strataglass and unfinished edges.  Also notice the marine vinyl strips going across the bimini.  Our old bimini had these vinyl strips and it seemed to help with the chafing from our boom.  We found a matching Forest Green at Sailrite.

Not perfectly centered but it fits!

Other than the above, we're happy with our new bimini.  There was a mix-up on the Sunbrella fabric, which is Forest Green.  Evidently, there are two types of Sunbrella, one with black threads in the weave and one without.  We wanted our bimini to match our new sail pack and grill cover, which doesn't have the black threads in it.  However, our old bimini that the seamstress used as a reference had the black threads in it so ... our new bimini has black threads in it.  Oh well, there really isn't much of a difference so we're not gonna sweat it.  What is aggravating is my own fault ... the placement of the window.  Ken thought it should go further back and I should have listened.  In order to see the top of the mast ... it should be further back.  Next time there's a decision to be made, I'm listening to Ken.  I hate that I screwed up on this!

Tomorrow I'll be bringing the bimini to the seamstress for the final adjustments.  Once I get it back, I'll do another post about the finished product and another thing I had the seamstress add that I thought was a pretty good (and cheap) idea.  I'll also include where I found a great price on the Strataglass and the cleaner to go with it.

Yesterday, Ken had a day between jobs so he and his helper gave Nirvana's teak a face lift.  The teak looks great, and you can see the post with before and after pictures here.

Oh, and Ken has decided on the set up of the lazy jack system that he wants to use with our new sail pack.  West Marine has a different sale every day this week, and Thursday is 40% off their rope!  This is perfect timing, and we'll get triple points on our West Marine card.   Check out their sale ...

  Shop 13 Days of Red Hot Deals from West Marine - A New Deal Every Day! Valid 6/21/13-7/3/13.

We're making up for lost time, and it feels so good.

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!