Bimini to fit Bavaria 32

[ICENI]

Hi Guys,

Can anyone give me information of manufacturers or suppliers of Biminis.   I have a 2002 J &J Bavaria 32 Cruiser.

Thanks in advance.

[Symphony]

Most biminis and spray hoods etc are custom made by specialists. If you are in the UK the firms with most experience in making for Bavarias are C&J marine in Chichetser, who made most of the canvas work for new Bavarias in the UK until around 2009 and Tecsew in Gosport who are the current supplier. You will find examples of their work on their website www.tecsew.com

Both firms do good work, although my preference is for Tecsew who seem to me to have the edge on design.

[Yngmar]

C&J has a design on file for your boat: https://www.cjmarine.co.uk/model/bavaria-32-cruiser/

Pretty basic though, covers only half the cockpit and expensive too.

[Symphony]

The dilemma with the smaller boats is the lack of headroom under the boom that limits how far forward you can take the bimini - even more so on the later 33 where the mainsheet comes down to the cockpit table.

[Sitesurfer]

I don't know if this in anyway helps but here goes:

I am having Flew Sails at Wicor make up a custom enclosure for our B36 2002, my requirements were that I could have a bimini when needed which had zips and fittings to acomodate sides and a seperate extension roof which attached to the spray hood which would at the same time be modified to allow that attachment.

Given the issue with the boom height (I cant stand upright beneath it) we agreed that indeed a sloping section could be manufactured to provide a roof extension to the bimini and thus create a full enclosure.

Their price was (in my opinion) totally reasonable given the amount of work they need to do and the thought that Mark Flew has given the project.

[nightowle]

It does depend somewhat on where you are located.  Overtons.com is a large US company that has "off the shelf" biminis at cheaper prices.  Yes, the canvas is not the high-quality stuff, but it depends on what you're after.  They have a myriad of attachment pieces to pretty much customize and make fit their standard sizes.  If you're looking to save money, this can be a good route.  I'm not sure if they ship overseas.

[Salty]

.
Given the issue with the boom height (I cant stand upright beneath it) we agreed that indeed a sloping section could be manufactured to provide a roof extension to the bimini and thus create a full enclosure.
.

The boom height over the cockpit is adjustable !!

When I bought my B36(2002) it was second hand and was an ex charter boat where it’s main sail may or may not have been the original. The main sail was quite old, worn, arguably stretched, and had definitely seen better days, and I at 5’10.5” in height could also not safely stand under the end of boom. Knowing that the existing main sail was in poor shape, I ordered a new main sail from measurements that I took, and where the end of the boom was raised just sufficiently to allow me to stand at full height under the end of the boom and with a couple of inches clearance in order to remove the risk of an accidental headache.

I can appreciate that you may be taller than me, and that you may already have a virtually new sail and don’t want to have to spend out a large sum of money on a new sail just yet, but you can get your sailmaker to make adjustments to it for a whole lot less money than the cost of a new one. Prior to buying my new mainsail I had discussed my intention with a more experienced yachty neighbour, and he had held up his hands in shock horror at the thought, and argued that I’d lose out dramatically on performance etc., but it was all bluster and negative thinking. If there has been a loss in performance, it has been more than made up for by careful trimming of the sails.

At the end of the day what you need is a boat you can sail safely without the risk of getting your head smashed in during an inadvertent gybe.

As for the full cockpit canopy, I bought one from C&J Marine in the UK, and without doubt it has been one of the best and most useful additions to my boat, but raising the end of the boom has to be the safest modification so far.

[Sitesurfer]

Given that the sail is 16 years old (original), this idea may prove to be the best yet.

The loss of sail area would be less than a foot I think, the effect overall negligble (the genoa provides the power anyway) and would make life so much nicer.

[Symphony]

Not sure raising the boom is really necessary unless you are spending all your time sailing in an environment where a totally shaded cockpit is desirable. Tne boom cannot be raised anyway if you have in mast furling. On my old 37 in the Med I never felt a real need for the gap between the front of the bimini and the sprayhood to be filled. The coverage was enough for the helm and more than half of the cockpit seats. What I found more useful was a backdrop down to the stern as we often moored stern to facing west into the setting sun, or motoring north in the calm mornings.

As ever there are always compromises and one of the advantages of having such things custom made is that you can have a design that suits you within the constraints you have. Not always easy to do this if you have not had such a thing made before which is why it is useful to look at what others have done as well as draw on the experience of the person doing the job. What I found useful with Tecsew is that they use 3D design software so you can see what things look like before you commit.

[Sitesurfer]

It’s not about the Bimini (just to clarify) in our case - it’s about the enclosure and usability in crappy UK conditions 😂

[Symphony]

www.tecsew.com/cockpit-enclosures/bavaria-36-cockpit-enclosure-fitted-to-cj-sprayhood might help with ideas. Don't think the sail has been modified or boom raised.

[ICENI]

Great!   

Many thanks all of you.   Now I have lots to consider at length.

My previous boat was in Greece and the Bimini was mostly used for sun protection but now I as back in the UK I require it for both that and of course protection from foul weather!

[smaugi]

I ordered a Bimini at BOOT-Düsseldorf 2019 for my Bav 33cruiser/2005  in Germany.
-> http://www.nauti.de/en
It fit's perfectly without measuring before at my boat.

[nightowle]

I wish I could find some better photos at hand showing the full enclosure in the closed position.  Here's a couple just to give the general idea of clearing the boom on a 35E.  This set up was made by Iverson's, probably the top company on the US West Coast.  Not that you'd use them, but looking at their website and their interactive tools, will possibly help in making up a design that can be shown to a local producer.  I also like their colour selector for trying out different combination if you want a 2 tone look such as we have:  http://www.iversonsdesign.com/itop.html

I like the Iverson design in terms of giving the most amount of visibility with large isinglass areas.