DIY - Cockpit Screened Enclosure

[avpilot]

I just wanted to share a finished DIY boat project with Tugnuts – a screen enclosure for the cockpit of our R25SC. Here’s a link to the photo gallery: gallery2.php?g2_itemId=38492 (If the link doesn't work, search on Avpilot in Photo albums.) The enclosure won't keep out No See 'Ems, but mosquitoes, flies and other flying critters should be excluded. Had I used a finer mesh netting No See 'Ems probably could be held at bay. The total cost was about $300, certainly far less than a professional job. Maybe not as elegant as the netting we saw on R29 Our Lady Bug Tug during last summer’s Desolation Sound cruise, but hopefully as functional. My goal was to put no new holes in the boat and stick no Velcro to the boat. I succeeded. The rub rail is slightly "beyond vertical" of the bimini - meaning that with a sufficiently long netting it would rest against the rubrail and provide a barrier to bug ingress. And the netting is a tight enough fit to where a breeze will not let it flap. The key to making it a DIY project was that the bimini already had zippers pre-installed for side panels. Without those "half-zippers” the difficulty factor would have been much greater.

The Textilene Super Screen netting was ordered online from Arizona Sun Supply. The various other components (#10 separating zippers, zipper stops, nylon webbing, Weblon vinyl binding, nylon thread and #19 sewing machine needles) can be purchased online from suppliers such as Sailrite or Sailmaker’s Supply. I used my home sewing machine. Had I owned a commercial walking foot machine the job would have been easier and probably would have looked better. But, one uses what one has!

Kathy and Gregg Dohrer
Santolina, R25SC