Outstanding Achievement Award | Hood Marine Canvas & Training | Merrimac, Mass.

This project won a 2013 MFA Outstanding Achievement Award in the miscellaneous marine category. The project provided a permanent shade structure on the small aft deck of our client’s Nordic Tug.

Our clients requested a permanent shade structure with zippered access to the cabin top ladder. They also requested a single, small rectangle of fabric that could be zippered at various spots around the edge to block a low sun angle.

We made up a 1-inch stainless border frame that we attached with standard clamp fittings to both upper and lower tug rails. We set our frame level with the tug’s top rail. We did this to utilize the tug’s aft rail as the fourth side of our boxed frame. An arched mid-cross member was welded side to side to provide some water shed. We placed a kick in the two aft support stanchions to extend the top farther aft. We fabricated a small rectangular sunshade panel that can be zippered to any of five spots around the perimeter to block the sun glare.

Our clients were very happy. We continue to receive emails from them in their retirement travels.