E-25 cb bimini?

Has anyone put a bimini on there e-25? If so how did you do it and do you have any pictures?

here is one...

A friend has the bimini pictured on his 25. If you would like more detailed pics let me know.

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Speaking of Hot days....it has been exceptional here in the South this summer.

I had a bimini and connector piece installed this spring on my E26 and it has provided very welcome shade this summer. The bimini is slightly higher than the boom and has full standing headroom (for me at 6') underneath it. The gap between the bimini and the dodger allows very good visibility of the main and the genoa for trimming from the normal tiller helming spot in the cockpit.

Pat

Pat,

I really like your bimini/dodger set-up on your E26. Earlier in the week I was looking around at some old E25 threads and ran across some pictures that had been posted by others in what seems like the distant past. Thought I'd post them now to make it easier for everyone to access this information in one place. This is the first time I've used the new version of the Ericson website to upload pictures, so I hope they are formated correctly.

Regards,
Roscoe, E25cb #226

Thanks Roscoe.

I worked with my canvas guy and came up with this design. My key criteria were to be able to see the sails and to not have straps which would be in the way. I probably gave up some overall shade because of these, but so far have always been able to find a shady spot to steer from.

I did end up doing a little retightening and rebedding of the stantions to support the Bimini after the initial installation. We had a thunderstorm come through the marina in late May that had gusts of 50+ and the dodger & bimini had no problems (even though the end of the docks broke loose!). I don't think I would trust it for a sustained blow, but I do have some confidence that it is pretty solid at this point.

Pat

Pat,

Yes, it certainly does look like quality construction. I have a follow-up question that will, I believe, benefit all E25 and E26 owners. This concerns your dodger. I notice that the aft-most portions of your dodger are pretty close to your winches. It would seem that this would interfere with your use of the winches, at least in terms of making full 360 degree turns with the handle. When I was thread hunting last week I also ran across some pictures of Steve Swann's dodger on his E25. You can see in the link provided by VolvoEricson above that Steve's dodger actually goes beyond the winches and includes cutouts for access to them. In one thread or another elsewhere Steve said that he was comfortable with this set-up, despite the limited turning radius with the winch handle. It really seems that for boats the size of the E25 and E26 there is not much of a choice. If you want the protection offered by a dodger, you must give full use of the winch. Is that your experience?

Regards,
Roscoe

This cropped version of the picture of Steve's boat on Lake Mead gives a better view of what I'm talking about, especially if you click on the image. Hope this helps everyone. Thanks Steve for the great shots of your E25. With such striking backgrounds you could make some good jigsaw puzzles with those pictures.

Thanks,
Roscoe

Dang it, forgot to attach it. More coffee needed. Here's the picture.

Roscoe,

I've attached another picture which may help in visualizing the clearance between my dodger and the primary winches. As you can see I have plenty of clearance for the winch handle (Lewmar 8" one touch). Under the dodger for the secondary winches, I do have a clearance problem and can only winch inboard forwards and backwards. This has not been a problem as I normally sail using vang and traveler in combination with the mainsheet.

I do not have a sheet clearance problem with the dodger on the starboard side at all. On the port side, under some circumstances, I get the very slightest of sheet rubs against the dodger fabric, which I have solved with a leather rub strip on the trailing edge of the dodger. I only get the rub on the port side when I use the genoa track car system to move the cars all the way forward (reefed genny or downwind), which tends to move the angle of attack inboard. This is because the port side winch winds to the inboard side while the starboard side winds to the outboard. The change to self tailing winches did exagerate the clerances on both sides due to the slighty larger drums.....given the joys of the self tailers, this was an easy tradeoff to put the leather strip in.

The dodger was in place when I bought the boat. 2 years ago to save some costs, I traded labor with a dockmate who built the same style replacement shown in the pictures for me. If I were to do it all over again, I would probably switch to a California style dodger which would eliminate the sides and front plastic/glass, unless they were specifically snapped into place. That design would seem to eliminate the trade-offs I have seen.

Pat

Pat,

Thanks for the additional picture and information. That helps a lot. Do you also have a picture (taken within the cockpit) of the area around the companionway hatch? I can sort of see into that space in the first picture. There must, though, be some issues with perspective. It looks like the companionway hatch, in the closed position, is touching the forward edge of the dodger. In other words, it looks like there is no room for it to slide open. Likewise, in the second picture, the space for movement seems to be lacking.

Appreciate your insights,
Roscoe

Roscoe,

The picture below was taken last fall before the installation of the Bimini. The dodger attaches in between the edge of the companionway seahood and the traveller. There is no problem opening the hatch full open to the edge of the seahood. I think the bit of blue you saw in the first picture is my blue hatchboard bag on top of the hatch....so it appeared to be part of the dodger.

Pat

Pat,

It all makes much better sense now. It was actually the second picture that was the more confusing of the two. In that picture it looked as if the forward edge of the dodger was snapped onto your white deck. It was hard (and still is hard) to see a sea hood there, I guess since it's the same color as the deck. A really beautiful step-up you have there, especially with that bimini now in place.

Thanks again,
Roscoe

a few more pics of Europa

note the simplicity of the install and location of the boom.

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Hi Roscoe,

I don't know for an absolute fact, but I have seen several of the last generation E26's like my own and all had the main sheet led forward along the boom and then back to the cockpit on the starboard side of the cabin top.

I did make changes to the type of cleat used on the traveler and mainsheet from cam cleats to spinlock type. I find that the positive action of cleating and uncleating on the spinlocks to be much easier than cam cleats, particularly if the cams are loaded up. Spinlocks do add a bit of extra friction that cam style cleats don't have, but so far I have not found that to be a problem. For the traveler, I can just unzip the center window zippers a bit to have full control of the spinlocks without having to unzip and unbutton the window all the way.

A couple of pictures of the traveler spinlocks and traveler with main sheet blocks are below. These pictures might give you a little more perspective on the attachment of the dodger to the seahood as well.

Pat

Thanks

Dave N said:

View attachment 9309View attachment 9310A friend has the bimini pictured on his 25. If you would like more detailed pics let me know.

.View attachment 9270

Click to expand...

Did you have your bimini made special for the boat? It looks great.