Yesterday it rained a good bit of the day which gave me the momentum to tackle a couple sewing projects that I've been wanting to do.
Project #1
The first one was a seat bag for the dinghy, a long rectangle bag to store things like rags, flashlights, and so forth so that the dink doesn't look like my car used to when I had young toddlers. Our dink makes this project fairly easy since the seat board comes completely unfastened from the hinge that hooks it to the side tubes, so you can slide the board into the bag for an easy mount and finished look. I eked this project out of leftover and used fabric and notions so no money was spent.
Looking from the front of the dinghy to the back, the bag is solid fabric along the top and back. The bottom is made from a vinyl mesh so that it can drain water out from rains and/or wet things put inside and hopefully not get too moldy.
From the front, there is a zipper to access the bag and you can see the mesh bottom in this picture.
It has enough room to fit most of the things that keep rolling around in the dink so our family car is a littlecleaner more organized than it was before. It took the pictures for me to see that it's time to scrub the thing though. In my defense, I did scrub the deck of the boat after making the dinghy bag because by the time I got it installed I was soaked from the rain anyway and it seemed the logical thing to do.
Project #2
Since we were due to have rain most of yesterday and most of today and it's finally around 80°, we needed a better hatch rain cover so we could leave the hatch open while it's raining, especially the one over the V- berth. I definitely could have made this better had I ordered parts and materials specifically for it, but I was using stuff I had on hand, a common problem on boats, which is why so many boat projects are designed and built to some pretty weird standards. It's just too hard to order stuff and have to trudge halfway across town to haul it back from the Post Office.
From the inside, the cover allows the hatch to be open enough to funnel air in without allowing too much rain in unless it's absolutely raining horizontally.
I made the straps adjusting with plastic clutches and pre-marked the straps at the normal point that they need to be so that we can install it in a hurry. The line on the front edge can go up high on the stay so it acts like a wind scoop, or it can go low on deck for the minimum opportunity for rain to enter.
Project #1
The first one was a seat bag for the dinghy, a long rectangle bag to store things like rags, flashlights, and so forth so that the dink doesn't look like my car used to when I had young toddlers. Our dink makes this project fairly easy since the seat board comes completely unfastened from the hinge that hooks it to the side tubes, so you can slide the board into the bag for an easy mount and finished look. I eked this project out of leftover and used fabric and notions so no money was spent.
Looking from the front of the dinghy to the back, the bag is solid fabric along the top and back. The bottom is made from a vinyl mesh so that it can drain water out from rains and/or wet things put inside and hopefully not get too moldy.
From the front, there is a zipper to access the bag and you can see the mesh bottom in this picture.
It has enough room to fit most of the things that keep rolling around in the dink so our family car is a little
Project #2
Since we were due to have rain most of yesterday and most of today and it's finally around 80°, we needed a better hatch rain cover so we could leave the hatch open while it's raining, especially the one over the V- berth. I definitely could have made this better had I ordered parts and materials specifically for it, but I was using stuff I had on hand, a common problem on boats, which is why so many boat projects are designed and built to some pretty weird standards. It's just too hard to order stuff and have to trudge halfway across town to haul it back from the Post Office.
From the inside, the cover allows the hatch to be open enough to funnel air in without allowing too much rain in unless it's absolutely raining horizontally.
I made the straps adjusting with plastic clutches and pre-marked the straps at the normal point that they need to be so that we can install it in a hurry. The line on the front edge can go up high on the stay so it acts like a wind scoop, or it can go low on deck for the minimum opportunity for rain to enter.
5 comments:
Hey,
Brian and Shelly from Tradewinds here. We've enjoyed following your trip. Were going to be in the Bahamas the last week of February. Abacos area to be exact. We have a 38' Beneteau chartered. Didn't know if a crossing to the Bahamas was in your near future. If so let us know.
Hey Deb, nice sewing projects. I'll keep this one for future reference. We have a 36' Morgan and she can certainly use help keeping out the rain.
Very clever
@Brian and Shelly - We're not planning on going to the Bahamas this year. We figured since it's a shakedown for the boat we'd better stay in the US this first year, close to shipping and parts. If you go next year, save your charter dollars and come sail with us!
Deb, observational suggestion, If you reversed the direction of the lifted portion, face it aft, would it allow air to flow around the hatch lid, but make the hatch act as an additional rain blocker?
You shoulda see my light blocking job I used to do on my v berth hatch lid. Now I will say I was tide to a marina, but I'd have the welcome mat covering the hatch with beach chairs bungeed down, just to hope to sleep to 8am. But I was surprised how much light seeped through the fiberglass deck.
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