Since I am, shall we say, somewhat prone to sunburns, we decided during our 2005 cruise that a cockpit awning would be a valuable addition. In fact, we have even rigged a mickey-mouse-awning using a quilt in the past. Obviously, something a little better needed to be built.

Over the 05-06 winter, I posted a question about awning design to the Plastic Classic Forum. I recieved some great feedback, and stowed those ideas away till the boat was back in the water so I could take some measurements and put the design together.

Keep It Simple, Stupid

I originally had grandiose ideas of building some sort of catenary curve tension-tarp with high-tech materials. The more I researched things, and the more I thought about it, the more I decided that simple was better. Ultimately, I ended up settling on a design that was little more than a flat sheet of fabric with grommets hammered into the corners.

Although I was tempted to go with Sunbrella, I ultimately decided that bulk and cost might favor a different product. If the design worked well, and the chosen fabric didn't work out, I could always chalk it up as a mock-up and rebuild it out of Sunbrella. After a bit of online research, I decided to go with another acrylic product called Odyssey III which I found available for less than a third of the cost of Sunbrella at an online distributer. The Odyssey fabric was even available in Silver, which turned out to very closely match the Silver Sunbrella that we have used on Dasein. The fabric is a 6.5oz acrylic that has an almost waxy or plasticy finish on one side which I hoped would help it to shed rain. The fabric was 64 inches wide, and I ordered 16 yards, just to be sure I had enough.

With the material and a series of measurements from the boat in hand, I measured out two 13 foot lengths of fabric and placed them on top of each other. I pinned the material together, then layed out cut marks based on my measurements.

After I had made the first basic cuts, I sewed the two halves of the awning together using a flat-felled seam. This was my first major sewing project. Ever. And I was relatively pleased with the results that my-amature-self was able to get out of my ancient sewing machine. Tailors and seamstresses would have been horrified, however.

Errrr. Recut.

Heather wisely suggested that we take a trip down to the boat at that point. Just to check. The fit, actually was pretty good, but the awning was just a little bit too wide along the sides. After futzing about with it for a bit, we decided that I should run a straight line from the second grommet location back from the forward end to aft end, about 4 inches inboard from the aftermost corner. We brought the awning back home where I did that.

All that remained was to cut a slit in the after end of the awning for the topping lift, then hem all of the edges. I hemmed the edges with a 1 and 1/2 inch hem. Once that was done, I hammered in grommets at all the corners, plus one extra about halfway down the longest edge on each side so that I could attach it to the boat with guys.

Success!

Of course I finished the awning at about 8pm the night before leaving for our 2006 cruise, so I didn't get a chance to check the final fit until I was in Pulpit Harbor. I was however, quite pleased with the results. The awning is quite quick and easy to set up: I unfold the awning over the boom, attach the two grommets on either side of the topping lift slit to the flag halyard cleat on my backstay. I then attach the two forwardmost corners to the aft lower shrouds. Next connect the 2 aftermost corners to the ends of the stern rail. Then there are just two more guys on each side to help even out the tension on the tarp. It takes about 2-3 minutes to get it in place, and about the same to get it down. If I don't fold it, but just stuff it down the hatch if there is an emergency, it only takes about 15 or 20 seconds to douse.

I am very pleased with the results. Besides being easy to deploy and douse, the awning holds up well in the wind (tested up to about 25 knots), is not particularly noisy, blocks the sun very well—even allowing us to use a laptop in the cockpit during the day, and still provides excellent ventilation. The only place that it is less than excellent is during rain. First, if there is any wind at all, the rain will blow in under the awning. Secondly, if it rains for an extended period, eventually the rain weeps through the fabric along the ridge where it rests on the sailcover. Then little rivulets of water run down the sailcover and drip on your head. Still, it does allow me to leave the companionway hatch open during the rain, which is nice, and it deals with light mists, and brief showers quite well.