Cruising Comfort For All Seasons

When we bought La Vida Dulce in the Fall of 2009 we made a list of things we'd like to add over the next few years to improve our comfort aboard.  Safety items were at the top of the list, a dinghy, genset, radar, instruments......the regular stuff.  We wanted to be able to use the cockpit as much as possible so we decided to have it screened in during the warm weather  and enclosed with Eisenglass (clear 30 mil vinyl) when it's cold.

When we moved out of the house we raised some extra cash in a garage sale so we talked to the guys at North Sail about doing the enclosure for us.  They priced it out as two separate jobs, screen and Eisenglass, both being way more expensive than we had planned.  So we settled for just doing the screens and figured we'd have the Eisenglass done in the Fall.

Over the Summer we bought a Sailrite sewing machine (check this out) so we could do some of our own canvas work, smaller projects like hatch covers and winch covers.  We figured after a while we'd have enough experience that we could use it for sail repair and maybe even replacing the Dodger and Bimini when the time came.When we bought the machine, the owner of Sailrite in Annapolis told us about a very cool technique for enclosing the cockpit.  On our boat the screen enclosure is made up of seven panels, three across the back and two on each side, that zip to the Bimini and Dodger covers and also zip to each other.  Normally you would take down the screens and put up the Eisenglass panels when the weather got cold.  His suggestion was to make clear vinyl panels that would snap onto the inside of the screens.  This would require only one zipper  across the top and snaps down the sides.  No need to make a full frame for each panel because the vinyl is pretty stiff by itself and the screen frame provides all the support it needs.  This sounds like something we could do!  We decided to give it a try even though it was our first project with the new sewing machine.  The size of this project is pretty daunting but it can be broken down into seven panels and done a little at a time.  The best part is the cost.  North Sail quoted us $3500 to do the enclosure.  That's just for the Eisenglass panels.  The screens they built for us cost $2500. Yikes!  That's a buncha dough!  For parts and materials we have about $700 invested in our enclosure.  I guess the other $2800 is for time and sweat.

We started on the center panel in the back.  On the screen panels we drilled out the snaps that were used to hold up the storage straps when the screens were unrolled.  They'd be in the way when we attach the zipper across the top for the Eisenglass.  We laid the screen panel out on the bunk and trimmed a piece of E-glass to fit.  We sized it so it was just inside the hem of the frame for the screen which is where the snaps will attach.  The zipper was kinda tricky because it follows the arc of the Bimini.  We found that when we hung the screen panel and attached the E-glass panel it hung kinda crooked and had to be trimmed a bit to match.  This is the learning part...make mistakes and hopefully learn from them.  The next time we cut it oversize and trimmed it down later.

Once we had it sized correctly we marked where we wanted snaps, evenly spaced about every 10" down each side.  The snap tool is a beast and requires three hands (check it out).  It has different inserts that go in the jaws depending on which side of the snap you're doing.  It pays to keep all the parts and inserts for the snap separated into bags.  Each side of the snap, socket and button, has two parts and two inserts for the tool.  They all look similar and I can picture myself spending many hours sorting things out each time I go to use it.  That's time wasted that could be spent making progress on our projects!

Where the snaps go we made grabber tabs out of green Sunbrella, the same material the screen frames are made from.  Our tabs are about 1" wide and 2.5" long after they've been folded over and sewn to the E-glass, providing extra reinforcement by sandwiching the vinyl where the snaps get attached.  You just yank on the tab to unsnap the panel.  Easy.

Until we finished the enclosure we used a gigantic tarp to cover the cockpit during the Winter.  It's brown and makes our boat look like a Conestoga Wagon.  Pretty funky.  The completed enclosure looks good and does a nice job of keeping the wind out.  It lets the light in and gives a greenhouse effect.  It's not warm enough to sit out there in your birthday suit but it is pretty nice with a sweater on.  And pants.

When we're not using the E-glass panels we store them under the bunk in the aft cabin with some cheap sheets in between each panel to prevent them from sticking to each other.  We keep the screens attached all the time and roll them up when they're not being used.  Our cockpit has now become an extra room on our boat.  It's like having a screened in porch but it can be used year round.  Sweet!

Another addition we made was a Sunbrella panel that takes the place of the forward screen on the port side.  When we're in the slip, which is most of the time right now, this is where we come through to get onto the boat.  We found that the Eisenglass is too stiff to easily pull out of the way and having just the screen lets in the rain and the cold air.  Our new panel zips in at the top and is weighted at the bottom.  It simply hangs there and can be easily flipped up out of the way for access to the cockpit.  We added several grommets near the top so it can be tied to the Bimini frame to help give it shape.  There's another grommet at the bottom so when we flip it up we can attach a bungee cord to hold it up out of the way.