bbsb spray skirt

P

Paul Healy

New member
Last fall I bought an older bbsb. I think the seller was the 2nd owner. He got it from an older gent and said it came from the Jersey shore. It has a canvas (oilcloth?) spray skirt that snaps onto the deck, but has no visible means of a way to keep it in the upright position ( I used a piece of wood for the pic with it up, but that doesn't seem very reliable ). There's no holes or channels in it for any sort of support structure; previous owner doesn't seem to have used it. The only thing on the deck besides the snaps is a bow handle. In case my pictures don't upload, the boat looks very similar to the one shown under "sneakboat" in Duckboats 101. Under duckboat specs, I found a picture of a Simonsen with a similar spray skirt referred to as a "Van Sant-style spray skirt. Looking forward to using this for solo hunts this fall, but need to figure out the spray skirt.

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dodgers on that style generally used an upright pole from the deck to the peak of the dodger. When I get a home I can post a picture
 
Paul, what you picture is what is typical of the old style tent dodgers. They were simply propped tight to shed breaking waves over the bow and keep the wind off the back of your neck. I fashioned a Dave Clark style, baby buggy dodger on mine, and use a wooden dowel to support the first hoop. My dowel is attached and is sized to fit tight along the dodger to the deck, and not sit out in the middle of the space as you picture. Perhaps you can bend a conduit or fiberglas pole to support the trailing edge and support it so that you can more easily place things under the dodger? That was my interest.... I have enough room under mine for a dog to lie, or fits my blind bag, coat, etc.... to keep them dry.

Perhaps we can catch up when I head to VT in November to hunt with John Bourbon and Cheech Kehoe?
 
It looks like you have an old Higbee box. If you're looking for a replacement, the Classic Barnegat website carried a dodger that is similar to the original on your boat
 
Sorry, I forgot when I got home. Here is the picture. As Dave said it doesn't do much beyond cut the wind and spray. My hope is to have a dodge like he described built by hunting season, which means I've got to get busy real soon.
Mine has a grommet at the top that the pointed stick goes into. Other than that it is just cut to length to wedge between the canvas the deck.


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Darin,
What you have is called a breakwater. A simple design to stop the waves from coming over the bow.
most were made with a pocket in the canvas for a stick and another in the boat.
 
Thanks. That looks almost identical to what's on my boat. Putting a grommet in the material would be easy enough, as would adding a point on the deck to secure the bottom of the support, as Bill suggested. Thanks to all who offered advice and info. It looks like these little rigs have quite a fan base!
 
Thanks. Your dodger is considerably more elaborate than what I have, but it could provide some inspiration. Shoot me an e-mail in the fall. I've never met John, but I'd seen his rigs and dekes on a different site years ago, and actually lived about a mile away from him for a while.
 
Paul~

Here is the dodger I made for my Sneakbox. Some of the details may work for your rig:

This canvas (Sunbrella Marine Fabric) is about 20 years old and needs to be replaced. As you can see, it uses a bow to spread it out and keep more spray in the bay where it belongs.

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Here is the strut I use to hold it up. Note that it tapers but is symmetrical - so I do not need to know which is fore and aft.
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The top of the strut fits into a pocket sewn into the canvas - the notch fits onto the tubing (conduit) I use for the bow.


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(I should probably rotate this image 90 degrees counterclockwise so the strut is more near to vertical.)
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The bottom seats in a chock fastened to the forward coaming. My "coaming" is wide molded 'glass. If you have a conventional wooden coaming, you could just notch the bottom of the strut.




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The hole is big enough to take my index finger. It helps me lift up on the strut during installation or removal. I cut the length of the strut very precisely to get a snug press fit. It has never worked its way out when under way.




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Here it is down - for hunting but also for trailering and storage. I use my pushpole as a ridgepole and have a canvas cockpit cover that stretches over it.



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Here is the dodger deployed - with neckrest in place. (I rarely hunt it like this, though. Dodger is down when I'm gunning.)
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The ends of the bow are flattened and hinge into the same blocks that hold my oarlock sockets.


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The lower edge is "permanently" fastened - using finishing washers and flathead screws - with caulk keeping everything watertight. You could use snaps or - my favorite - Common Sense Fasteners.



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Maybe next winter I'll get her back into fighting trim......


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Hope this helps,

SJS
 
Thanks for the great pictures. So far, Darin's dodger is the closest to what I have but it's great to see all these other setups and I'm getting ideas on other stuff, such as backrests (I don't have one) Your setup looks real convenient, but I wouldn't be able use the fiberglass cockpit cover that's on the boat. That's very handy for keeping the insides dry since I don't have a garage!
 
Paul~

You are correct that a rigid hatch would not work on my boat, but - just so you know, larger dodgers and rigid hatch covers are not necessarily incompatible. I will be posting some work in a month or so on a member's boat that is here for some TLC. The hatch closes over the dodger canvas and the bow fits inside.

If I ever rehab my Sneakbox, I intend to build new decks with a narrower cockpit. I will probably mount the dodger entirely outside of the cockpit - so I could use a rigid hatch if I so desired. (I prefer the canvas covers because - among other things - I can bring it with me wherever I go, on water or on the trailer.)

All the best,

SJS
 
I posted a picture of my set-up in a reply to another post, but here's a picture of what I did. There's a catch for a lock attached to the boat to secure the hatch cover. I put a socket on the skirt and use a piece of 3/4" pipe between the 2. Crude, but hopefully affective. I have a feeling evidence of the original support method was lost when someone did some repairs to the skirt.

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Old School! That's almost exactly what the originals looked like when they were first made.


Looks good and I think it will work.


Jon
 
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