Well, I may be wrong, but it looks to me that you have the ability to sew heavier fabrics? With our Bimini up trying to shade the kids, it was really only effective at high noon, so I was constantly adjusting the position of the boat, in relation to the shadow, until I thought ahead and brought some bed sheets to clip between our canopy and playpen. Still working on a more permanent solution, but I think that it will involves heavier screen, so that a breeze can still come through, but will provide a bit of shade, as well as not impair vision so I can be underway with them up. As I don't have that sweet hardtop, but mealrely a flimsy soft top, my side panels will likely wait until I get a less flimsy soft top. I'm thinking about a vinyl bordered setup, with zippers to connect the top and snaps at the bottom for me, but I imagine you could use snaps for the top and bottom.
Older 2 strokes are loud, even my mid-nineties model. A "Sun deck" of sorts going from port to starboard rail behind the back bench gives a nice finished look, a place for momma to lay out and will stiffle much of the engine noise, allowing you to have conversations at a normal level.
I'm not sure what kind of transom pod you have, but I will be searching for a fuel tank that fits inside of that pod. Trackers came with these from what I've read. Just a thought to clear up some deck space. My tank is over the aft most log, forcing my batteries to be underneath the rear bench. I plan to put a tank in the transom pod and batteries where the current tank resides, then cover with a sun deck.
Hope this made sense. I can poorly sketch some ideas if you want (I'm just being honest with myself, I'm no artist lol)
We do have the ability to do some pretty heavy stuff. The Admiral has a vintage "industrial grade" sewing machine, and it has been able to handle anything we can throw at it. For this season, we were planning on going cheap, and rigging some shower curtains along the hard top to add extra shade. Next winters project will probably be our most ambitious yet. We plan on making a full camper enclosure, than can be rigged off the hard top, with support poles running to the bow fence rail. Something like this.
I don't have too many good pictures of the stern of the boat, and the transom pod, but there's really not enough room to make some kind of sun deck. The back of the fence ends at the edge of the deck, then there are 2 sides of deck that extend 1.5' feet beyond the center deck, over the toons. These had boxes built on it that were designed to hide your standard 6 gallon metal gas tanks. I was planning on at some point getting a 12 gallon to go on one side, than perhaps a generator on the other, but that will be a while down the road.
Here's my transom pod.
And here you can kinda see the 2 pieces of deck that extend beyond the rest. Those are were the fuel tanks sat. Fence ran even with that inner most piece of aluminum trim.
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