Under Cover

You can always recognize a boat that has spent some time in the tropics by its sun awnings. I’m not talking abut your basic canvas bimini, but rather a series of awnings and shade cloths that make a boat look like it’s wearing a burkha…

The goal is to cover the boat—shading every hatch and swath of deck from the sun. The difference this makes to liveability is immense. Good awnings can lower the internal temperature of your boat by several degrees Celsius, and when daytime temps are topping 40°C—having the boat 5° cooler goes a long way…

The challenge is finding a way to suspend these awnings in an easy way—there are times when you need to get them down FAST. Usually at 3am, in the dark…

Also, because every boat has a different layout, no single awning system is universal. Every single one is a custom effort—making them awfully expensive to have them made professionally. We know one boat that spent more than 8k on canvas coverings—and considered it a bargain…
Because most cruisers are on a budget, most of the sun awnings are cobbled together as need arises. We started with our bimini, which we had made in La Cruz. Then added a few Ikea awnings to cover the hulls and then added shade cloth to screen in the aft part of the cockpit.

No doubt we’ll keep adding cloth as the summer heats up, eventually we’ll be unrecognizable—but hopefully cool.