Bimini Top mishap

[jlemberg]

Well my dry storage yard caught my top (which was down an laying on the windshield) on the skeg above my rack.  Needless to say they sent it out for repair, It came back straight, but with 4 or 5 uneven whitestitched frankenstein patches in the canvas.  Instead of beating someone, does anyone have any suggestions?  1999 AS 215 Explorer.

[Circle Hooked]

Tell them the repair is unacceptable and you want new canvas or you will do it yourself and deduct the cost from your storage fee.

[wingtime]

Yeah I wouldn't accept a patch job either.  It's one thing if it is on the outer edges where a patch can be blended in with an existing seam but not in the middle of the top.  If you damaged the top yourself that is one thing, but not if they did it.  The top should be put back to the way it was.  Trust me it is no big deal to copy your top.   for those of you that have small holes in Sunbrella here is a simple inexpensive repair option:

http://www.sailrite.com/Patch-Sunbrella-Canvas-with-TEAR-AID-Streaming-Video

[jlemberg]

Yeah right . I wouldnt even do a repair like that on any boat for any price...I don't know what they were thinking.  Is this even an option for repair?  Has anyone actually paid someone just to throw patches on the top?

[wingtime]

When I first saw the title of this post I thought it was something you did to your bimini.  It reminded me of my bimini mishap story.  So I'm gonna hijack this thread just a bit and share my story.  I was moving my boat from my workshop to my friends Quonset hut to store it for the winter while we restored a Jeep truck.  I was towing the boat to my friends house while he followed me in his SRT-8 charger.  It was a nice day and the traffic was light and the radio was playing some good tunes so life was good.  I was tooling along happy as a clam in the center lane of a three lane road.  When simultaneously a car in the left lane and right lane pull up to my  side windows and start pointing back at my trailer.  I think to myself "OH this doesn't look good".   I let off the gas and start looking in my mirrors.  I'm thinking a tire blew or a hub went bad or something like that.  I don't see anything out of the ordinary.  About the same time this is going on my phone rings...  I look at the caller Id and it's my buddy who is following me.  OH crud! Now I really let off the gas what could be wrong?!?!  I answer the phone to hear my buddy all excited "DUDE! TURN AROUND! YOUR WHOLE TOP FLEW OFF THE BOAT AND HIT MY WINDSHIELD!"    OH CRAP! I THINK.  "IT'S IN THE MIDDLE OF STREET AND CARS ARE RUNNING IT OVER!"    OH now how am I going to bang a U turn in this rig?.  OMG it hit my buddies windshield?  OH I wonder how the insurance is gonna pay for this!  I manage to get turned around and back to my buddy. There is my complete bimini top... frame and all laying in the street.   I pull into the median and run and grab my top and toss it into the bed of my pickup.  I expect to see my buddies windshield smashed into bits..    nothing..  just a chip and a smudge on the glass.   WOW!   My buddy tells me he was following about 200' behind me when he sees my bimini top fly off my boat and 30' up into the air...  and right back into his car!  It turns out I when I had folded the top down I had forgot to strap it down.  It flew up and ripped the eyes right out of the ends of the frame.  When I inspected the top later I was shocked to see it was undamaged other than the missing eyes and some grease from the bottom of someones car!

[Circle Hooked]

Good story,i kept putting myself in your place as i was reading it since i'm towing mine down to the keys next Sunday,glad it all worked out for you.

[Aswaff400]

Well my dry storage yard caught my top (which was down an laying on the windshield) on the skeg above my rack.  Needless to say they sent it out for repair, It came back straight, but with 4 or 5 uneven whitestitched frankenstein patches in the canvas.  Instead of beating someone, does anyone have any suggestions?  1999 AS 215 Explorer.

Tell them the repair is unacceptable and you want new canvas or you will do it yourself and deduct the cost from your storage fee.

just be glad they are fixing it. id say 98% of all high and dry marinas state in the contract you sign "marina and it employees are not responsible for damage done to: Bimini tops nor will fold them down, trim tabs, transducers, through-hull fittings, extended swim-platforms, ladders, antennas, and/or anything extending beyond the normal conformation of the hull... and usually the next line after that is the marina may reserve rights to refuse service to anyone without notice or cause...

not to sound like an a$$ but the last thing you want to do is get loud with them, and you especially dont want to use any cuss words, that is a quick and sure fire way for them to use the above against you and tell you to take it somewhere else...    

[jlemberg]

All good points..thanks for the help all.

[seabob4]

Aaron, I know your place of work, but, and I'm just saying, the top was folded down...

It would sound to me that the only way one can safely protect their top from mishaps (other than self-induced) is to remove it entirely from the boat...not much fun each outing...

[jlemberg]

Aaron, I know your place of work, but, and I'm just saying, the top was folded down...

It would sound to me that the only way one can safely protect their top from mishaps (other than self-induced) is to remove it entirely from the boat...not much fun each outing...

Its cool.  I'll let the storage place slide, and enjoy my new Beverly Hillbilly's style bimini top.  Maybe I can get Granny to sew me a new one someday.  The comedic factor of this has almost outweighed the @$250.00 cost of a new canvas anyway.