An update on the sprayhood project.

My canvas stitcher has let me down, she tried and got in a real stress over it all. She can do upholstery all day long, but the heavy canvas with windows n webbing etc were too much.

I have another guy who'll do a few for £300-ish. But nada till after easter, which is no good as I have have been informed that I'll be sailing without my first officer, cook, first mate and hot water bottle if I don't have Restless adorned with at least a sprayhood and bimini (and dodgers) due to a certain Solent rally...

So, I've got my 1952 Sninger industrial leather saddlery machine back on it's treadle and am currently cutting and stitching up new design.

It transpires that it is a good thing my seamstress stressed as some design issues have come to light that mean the latest version is really ranking highly on my cunningness scale. Namely, the big compromise is whether to go wide or narrow. Wide is nice for the protection and aesthetics, but a royal pain in the butt for geting on the foredeck. The narrow is great, as it doesn't interfere with winches or frd access, but doesn't give much protection outside the framework of the companionway.

So, wanting to have my cake and eat it, my current design (due for 1st stitch n fit tomrow) is a narrow hood, with add on wide sides. Mocked up in patterning cloth it looks great either way. I ended up moving the wing attachment points along the full side of the hood.. it's a 5'6" zip!! Any other way looks a bit silly, and at that size I think it still gives usefull acces to winches and maybe even jammers, dependant on where they may have been placed. When I get my pc back from virus treatment I'll update all this online.

I currently have a spare set of poles (sprayhood and bimini) available if anyone is interested. Bim poles £140 hood £80. For the hood you'll need fittings, which go from cheap n cheerfull nylon (£8) to cast n polished stuff (£30) with inbetween bits too. For the bim...... I think for an M you'll want track n cars. On an X an extra arm or straps are prob ok.
The bugger with the X is the backstay(s). I've split mine to an inverted Y config, but to have a usefull bim I've decided to use the frame to spread the backstay out. It is strong enough, and makes the bimini big enough to be worth having. Will make more sense when I get photos up. Just remember that my initial design was based on copying an M. However, these inferior designs lack a backstay, so no sweat there for big bims, but their poxy travellers mean sprayhoods can't come back much or the mainsheet will foul when sailing downwind.

Are you all following so far? I've spent alot of time scratching my head on this one. However it is looking like it should be the best sprayhood on a 26X yet.. at least so far in theory!

My mobile number is 0788 1963 949

Getting ready for the London ring rally...