SVJoli: Hard Top Dodger Project (2015

Joli came with a very nice, fairly new canvas and Eisenglass (hard, acrylic windows) dodger and Bimini. This allowed the whole center cockpit to be entirely enclosed with either windows or screens. Although the canvas leaked a little, it served us well for about 6 years. Being Eisenglass, the windows were stiff so the dodger was inconvenient to store when it was removed. We decided to make a new dodger and new Bimini cover using the old windows. We used flexible vinyl window material and Stamoid for all of the dodger to allow it to be rolled up for storage when removed. We also used Stamoid for the Binini top for its waterproof properties. We laid out the old dodger on the kitchen floor and used it as a pattern to cut out the Stamoid and vinyl windows. We had purchased a Consew commercial sewing machine which handled all the materials quite easily. I replaced all the zippers on the cockpit windows so that we could use them with the new Bimini cover. Although the Bimini was much easier to cut out and sew compared to the dodger, working with all those zippers was like putting together a great big puzzle! The new dodger and Bimini came out pretty well for amateurs and we have been happy with the Stamoid as it has proven to be durable and much more waterproof than the canvas. Now, 7 or 8 years later, we have decided to design, build and install a hard top dodger and Bimini. It has been a 2-year project so far (Bryan started thinking about the design in earnest in 2015) and the goal is to have them both installed this summer, 2017.

Sewing zippers

The vinyl windows on the dodger have held up well. We are anchored in Mosquito Bay, Middle Bass Island in this photo.

Hibou is admiring the Dodger we made (or maybe he's actually looking at the Canada geese).

Motoring north across Lake Erie to Sassy Marina, Algonac, MI for winter haul-out

You can see how nice the dodger and Bimini are for protection from the weather, especially when all the windows are zipped onto the Bimini (not shown here).

The beginnings of the mold

Coating the mold with filler/primer and fairing by "long-boarding" many, many times until the mold is almost perfect

Vacuum-bagging a test piece. The vacuum pump, a Welsch duo-seal 3/4 Hp, came cheap since it was a used pump.

After some adjustments and refining of our technique, the second test piece was satisfactory. Time to mold the dodger!

We used 3-4 layers of 7 oz carbon fiber with epoxy resin, followed by 3/4" balsa core and 3-4 layers of carbon fiber. The whole process of cutting the pieces and then laying them in place took about 5 hours.

We were happy the piece popped off the mold fairly easily. After the notch was cut out of the aft end of the dodger to eliminate the head-knocker on the current dodger, the piece is placed back on top of the mold for reference.