If you’ll remember, or want scroll down the page, back in September I had removed the old rotten canvas dodger. Left the tube frame in place and beefed it up with additional supports and built a new hard top using 1/2inch Starboard. This stuff KING StarBoard 24 x 54 x 1/2 WHITE/WHITE
The next step was to hire someone with the necessary skills to make us a new bottom half of the dodger from sunbrella and vinyl. After a lot of calling around and getting some ridiculously high quotes from people who either did not want to really do the work. Or thought way too much of their skills. We finally found someone that we could work with.
The folks we got to do the canvas work for us on the dodger is:
Jones Company Design, LLC.
Lorraine & Ken Jones
jonescodesign@yahoo.com
They did an AWESOME job on the dodger. They did exactly what we wanted. Even when working from awesome instructions/request from me, like…”uh…I don’t know. What ever you think looks good”. The whole thing turned out way better than I could have hoped for.
Don’t believe me? Take a look for your self:
From the front:
From the back:
Ignore the ugly ass sail cover. We are getting new sails this fall and the sail cover will be replace then.
And to answer a question from a friend. The canvas is attached to the hardtop portion by a track I had screwed and 4200’d into place. The track material is called Flex-a-rail. And is very easy to work with. Heat it up with a heatgun and mold/bend it to the curves you want and your good to go. I put a screw every 3 inches and used 4200 for added holding and to keep water from getting under the track and causing issues down the line.
Your dodger looks great!
I have a dodger that has seen better days, it is starting to fall apart, the seams are failing, my canvas guy said the Sunbrella is too weak to repair.
This will be my second dodger in 9 years.
So a new dodger was quoted between $1600 and up to $2200 for what I have now.
I’m gonna go for it and make a hard top like you have, and hire the canvas to be done.
Is there anything you would do differently in hindsight?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
I’ll keep you posted once I get started.
Thanks
Chuck
The only thing I would do differently if I were to do this project again. Would be to build some sort of jig for cutting the shape of the top. I had an outline made from poster board, but cut the final shape free hand using a handheld jigsaw. So there are one or two slight “zig zags” on the rear of the thing where I did’nt quite follow my outline perfectly.
Other than that, it was really quite a simple thing to build and very sturdy. I have noticed that the Starboard does scratch easily if something heavy is slid across it. But nothing that is a show stopper.
I attended the Annapolis boat show this past weekend. I met a guy that is taking orders to build the hard dodger. I was able to talk to him about how he constructed his. We discussed the expansion/contraction problem that would arise from attaching the King Starboard to a rigid frame. If I remember correctly he used a clamp on method that allowed for movement of the top on the frame. He also said that they used an oven for heat to create a shape.
How did you connect your dodger to the frame?
I used a combination heat gun and IR lamps to warm up the starboard. It was cold and windy the day I did it, so I need to use both. If it had been warm out that day I could have easily used just one heat gun. I also used a couple ratchet straps to hold it in place while heating and attaching.
As for attaching them to the frame. I used small Stainless steel u-bolts /padeyes and nuts to attach around the frame. I built this in Seattle and the us, the boat/dodger is now in Nicaragua. Have had absolutely no issues with expansion/contration issue at all.