Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Thanks! It was a great deal of effort to get the geometry worked out..

and drove the stainless steel guy half mad. However the result has been worth it. It is quite sturdy (all cored carbon fiber, we have had two men standing on it at once with no signs of collapse...) and makes a great place for 4 of the solar cells. Getting it to fold down easily and snuggle down to the deck was a challenge. I played with a bunch of ways to automate the up-down, but gave up in favor of just hoisting it with the mizzen staysail halyard. It takes about 5 minutes to remove (or fold) the curtains and another 2 or 3 to drop it to the deck, all single handed. I remove the center curtain section when the weather is warm, lets a breeze blow through. I really hated the normal snaps or twist dohickies to fasten the fabric, so the top has a continuous bolt rope track, at the bottom it lays against a low coaming and fastens using shock cord over hooks in just a few places. There is a carbon fiber rod sewn into the bottom edge, that and the curve of the coaming keeps it reasonably tidy.

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