So I recently 'acquired' a 16' open aluminum fishing boat from my grandpa. It took no more than five minutes to realize why I haven't ever wanted a boat before.
1) They are money pits.
2) There is always something that needs to be fixed, replaced, or upgraded.
The great thing about the deal is that I'm only a few bills into the boat so I really don't feel like I need to spend too much time and money to keep it in the shape it's in. Oh, yeah, and it floats and the motor works...I think. The bad news is that it is in dire need of a re-wiring job, lights, and a cover. Unfortunately, the place I planned to store the boat (next to the house on the north side) has no rain gutters whatsoever. And it just so happens that it rained cats and dogs this week and I totally forgot that the north side of the house turns into a waterfall...right into the boat! Ooopsie. After I pulled the drain plug at the transom and watched four inches of water pour from the deck of the boat it became apparent that priority numero uno this weekend was to get the damn thing covered.
Being the perfectionist and geek that I am it was obvious (at least to me) that I needed to model this contraption, make drawings, and find a way to make it as cheap and strong as possible (that part was probly my enginerd side of me). So there I was, sitting in the boat in the rain under the waterfall waving around a tape measure like a dork imagining what it was to look like...I was totally stoked that I was actually going to get a chance to build something again. After a couple hours of these shenanigans I had a decent model and drawing...BTW...I have to say it was SOOOO easy to do this in SolidWorks. Too bad I only get to do this at home on the weekends....but I digress...
okay, okay, it's not totally professional looking but it got the job done. After some more looking on boat blogs I found an amazing amount of clueless dudes totally willing and expecting to blow huge amounts of dough on these things...most didn't even bat an eye at dropping $700 for a cheap one. Holy crap dude...the boat and trailer didn't even cost me that! I vowed to do this thing, and do it well. I made some goals:
1) Make it strong enough not to rip off when traveling at near-top speed (cuz' let's face it...that would just be embarrassing).
2) It has to be big enough to provide shade and rain cover for the whole family (happy wife happy life)
3) Use all purchased parts (I'm getting lazy in my old age)
4) Do it for no more than $100 (I'm getting cheap in my old age too)
Yeah, the last one was a bit iffy, but I was damned if I was going to put too much into a fancy boat umbrella. The next step was to figure out what to make it out of. There are a few guys on
youtube that have made a canopy with PVC pipe on the cheap, but my
enginerd side overrode the north-idahoan in me that said PVC would be cheap and easy...I
could do better...much better. My original idea was to use galvanized electrical steel conduit, but I couldn't find 1" elbows and 3/4" just didn't seem big enough. Then a dude at the local hardware store pointed me in the direction of the fencing isle...and wouldn't you know it I got one of those ideas, you know, the kind that gets you all giddy inside like you just found treasure? Galvanized chain link fencing uses 1-3/8" thin-walled galvanized steel tubing (don't even have to paint it!), and has all KINDS of tees and elbows ready-made. PERFECT! All the hardware cost about $75, which was more than I expected but geeze it was going to be easy.
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| Attachment hardware to boat -bracket still required |
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| Elbows for upper 90 of frames |
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| Frame material |
I got it all home and within an hour I had the tubing cut (the $5 cut-off wheel for my circular saw made this a breeze) and the frames were put together ready to mount to the boat...and that's where it got a little more difficult. I looked at all sorts of brackets at the hardware store, but nothing really fit right. No matter what I found it needed major modification to work, so I punted on goal #3 and decided to make my own bracket. Sunday night and the boat still isn't covered. Not what I wanted but it's what I kinda expected. I should be ready to install tomorrow...more to come!
