Spray dodger

Diane from custom decoy bags makes the standard style dodger . Give her a call she may take on your project although different then what she normally makes.
 
I have the teepee style one she sells and it?s nice. But doesn?t look right on the bigger boat. Looks good on my Sneakbox
 
Actually in the process myself of putting one very similar to your design pic on a tandem kayak I,m fixing up for duckin. I make the pattern and get my wife to sew them. Each one of my blind projects she says will be her last but so far she hasn,t quit on me. Waiting on another bimini slide as I got a little to aggressive assembling my frame and cracked one.
 
That was a photo i took from the internet. How did you bend your rails and what did you use as material ? I?ve seen conduit used and Bimini top parts
 
I Made up a jig On work table and bent 3/4" emt conduit. I use 500 denier cordura nylon purchased thru ebay for my covering. Use clear poly to make my fabric pattern. Conduit bender will give you the best bends and have used that in the past. If using bender lay out on conduit section exactly where bender needs to be placed for each bend as you,ll do a few in each direction. First time I,ve tried the jig method set up on work table and my bend pattern needed was an elongated arc with tight bend at top. Finished product is usable but slight kinking at that top center hard bend. True arch jig should work fine , method just doesn,t like hard bends.
 
Rich~


Like Roy, I have used conduit for my bows and plastic for patterns.


2 thoughts:


When bending conduit around a jig, filling the conduit with dry sand (or shot if you have a supply) can help minimize kinking. Just tape the ends to contain the sand or shot. Also, I always clamp - with a wooden clamp or block - top-dead-center of the conduit/jig before bending it to shape. Also, you usually need to over-bend just a bit to account for springback.



Plastic sheeting taped to frames is good for patterns - but Dura Skrim is made for this purpose. The reinforcements prevent distortion and serve as a grid pattern to help with symmetry in your layout: https://www.sailrite.com/Dura-Skrim-Patterning-Material-74-5-Yds


All the best,

SJS







 
On the kayak dodger I have under construction I may reboot and Use SCD. 80 3/4" conduit..I would have to figure out a way to adapt the Bimini mounting brackets which are already installed to SCD. 80 conduit as I,m wanting the quick removal and swivel aspect of them. I made up some flip panels for boat blind on another of my fleet last year and really like the ease of bending it once heated in jig. Would also give me a little weight savings which is always a good thing for a boat that's paddled.
 
I made one of the dodgers with the large hoop on the bottom similar to the one pictured. It worked well, but required a vertical post, which made the dodger semi permanently up. It didn't fold down easily, the way I wanted it to. I my case this was probably a good thing, as my lab at that time, Marsh, was 115 lbs and liked to climb over the dodger instead of coming in from the side. SS Hoops and center post never had a problem with him.



View attachment grassedup.jpg

By big hoop on the bottom I mean:



View attachment dodgermarkedup.jpg

The above hoop orientation doesn't provide enough leverage to keep the dodger up with either side skirts or straps out to the oarlocks. Since the sun and weather have eaten the existing cover, and my present lab, Jetty, is only 75 lb. I'm planing on rebuilding it with the larger hoop on top. Having grown up on sail boats were this style dodger was common and raised up or folded down easily I should have known better for my first design. Below is a sketch of my rebuild design:
View attachment sprayshield.png
The hoops are salvaged SS Bimini hoops re-bent with a combination of conduit bender and tree crotch.
Good luck on your design.
Scott
 
where are you located i just dropped my sneak box off to a guy near me in Burlington county he has done some nice work in the past on my old boxes
 
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