Mike’s Marine Custom Canvas, Virginia Beach, Va.

This project, which won a 2008 MFA Award of Distinction and an Award of Excellence in the full exterior canvas sailboat 27’ and up category, included a dodger, bimini, connector, window covers and tapered frame over cockpit. These clients needed Mike’s Marine Custom Canvas to redesign an existing dodger and rebuild it on the original 1-inch stainless steel frame. The clients wanted to extend the forward edge 5 inches and replace the snaps at the bottom with Flex-a-rail for a better fit and seal. The new cockpit bimini required a tapered 1-inch stainless steel frame to follow the shape of the cockpit. It has two vertical braces aft and two horizontal braces from the front frame member back to the aft frame member to tension the frame. The dodger needed twelve cutouts and button holes for all the various sheets and traveler lines that had to pass through the forward canvas surface. These had to be measured precisely to seal them for maximum weather protection. The dodger has three u-zippers with Velcro flaps, all of which can swing up and snap overhead. The connector canvas zips to a covered zipper on the top of the dodger and then to the bimini. A viewing skylight is set to starboard on the bimini and has an inner flap with Velcro for easy opening and closing. The aft stay penetrates the top of the bimini so a covered zipper and Velcro boot were installed to close and seal the area. The tapered frame is bolted to the aft railing and is 12 inches wider forward than it is aft, which required all four bows to be bent to different dimensions. Window covers were added to keep the sun off the dodger windows. Navy blue binding was used on various edges of the canvas as an accent.