Bimini strong enough to hold up a kayak or two?

[dloop]

Hello,

Do you think that a cockpit Bimini would be strong enough (or customized to be strong enough) to hold up the stern end of two 50lb kayaks? The bow ends would be tied down on the cabin.

Thanks

[BRAZO]

Something like this would probably work:

[Guerillabill]

I've got my C-Dory at the bimini shop right now having a bimini fabricated for it.

During the design process, the shop let me choose the thickness and strength and placement of the support frame and struts.

We looked at several alternatives, including building a frame at the back of the pilothouse, which would support almost anything on the bimini top, as well as provide extra handholds when getting in and out of the boat.

We settled for a design without the pilothouse frame, but went with one where the rear bimini supports double as grab handles when using the boarding ladder on the back to get into the boat.

My experience has been a good bimini shop can pretty much design anything you want.

And they can assemble a paper and cardboard mockup and put it in the boat so you can see how it looks before they start drilling holes and cutting fabric.

Using the mockup, we saw areas where supports would cause problems filling the fuel tanks, so we adjusted those and tested all the hatches and ingress / egress areas just to make sure all worked the way we expected.

It's nice to see the mockup and know what you are getting before things progress to far.

Bill

[Captains Cat]

I don't believe a stock Taylor or equivalent Bimini would hold up any weight at all. The frame on those is Aluminum and not very heavy at that. It will hold a lot of sunbeams though!!

Charlie

[Will-C]

Specify 1 inch stainless steel tube, most quality canvas shops use that for frames for camper backs and bimini tops. That ought to hold up one end of the kayaks. Some like the idea of being able to fold back the bimini for fishing or if the queen wants some sun. Some have used car type mounts bolted to the roof or added pvc pipe type extentions to the standard roof rails and fabricated racks from PVC pipe. Try doing a search using kayaks there have been a number of great ideas floating around
D.D.

[tomherrick]

dloop,

A mount dedicated to the kayaks on top of the cabin is the way I'm planning on going. I have two 10-foot, 35-pound kayaks. They'll hang over the forward cabin roof and over the cockpit enclosure but won't touch the frame or fabric. A reasonably designed and built mount should be able to distribute the weight of the kayaks effectively and safely. I'd have some concern about the friction wear on the bimini/enclosure canvas with a kayak resting on it.

Good luck.

Tom

[dloop]

Thanks for all the great replies. I have been lurking for quite a while and searching this great site before I posted. So many of the custom frames that folks have posted are really beautiful. There also seems to be massive skill at building these in Florida---which makes sense.

Bill, I like your idea to see if I can work with a local shop to do a mock-up for me. I just called King Marine Canvas here in the PNW but they had gone home for the day so I will try them again tomorrow.

Tom, my kayaks are 17 1/2 feet long and the boat I purchase may be something with a small cabin like a c-ranger 21 (don't laugh, I know some of you just realized these kayaks would be almost as long as the boat itself Should be an interesting sight anyway). But since the kayaks are so long, I will need a fair amount of distance in the frame (front to back) to stabilize the kayaks I think.

I'll see what King Marine can do for me.

Thanks again!!