Building a hard top dodger


Building a dodger....

We decided over the winter that we needed some shelter and protection in the cockpit.  At the Toronto International Boat Show in January we spoke to as many vendors as we could in one place which was  a good idea at the time.  What we didn't realize was either way it was going to take longer than we expected.  A traditional Sunbrella dodger came with the advantage that we didn't have to do anything other than contract it out,  the big disadvantage for us was they aren't particularly sturdy and as we have a center cockpit,  the boom and accompanying sail handling is more of a challenge with a soft dodger.

We decided to build a "hybrid" hard top dodger with soft Sunbrella sides.  We liked this as we can still roll up the front panel for ventilation when needed but still have protected cockpit space when needed.  Off to the build we go!

The Build...

First  thing we had to do was decide how large the "hard top" portion would be.  We knew that because the Morgan is a center cockpit with the coamings that extend far forward that the top would have to be pretty deep in order provide some protection at least to the forward part of the cockpit .
After drawing up what we thought we needed, a template  was made   of the curve of the coaming ( more on this later) and determined the total width of the top.  The top ended up being 102 inches wide and 45 inches deep.

Off to build the forms for the top...


The form was made from 4 2x10's  106 inches long, cut to a curve with 7 inches of camber measured at the center.



Once the form was ready,  we laminated 2 layers of 3/8 inch marine ply over the form using thickened epoxy between the layers.

With the epoxy cured, we removed the top from the form and cut the front corners to a curve to match the cockpit coamings.  This is where that template we created earlier came in handy! After the top  was trimmed to shape,  we radiused the edges and then fiberglassed the top with 10oz cloth and epoxy.


 Same for the bottom!

After glassing both the top and bottom,  came a lot of sanding and fairing, you don't need to see pictures of that!!!!

Once the top was ready we needed to figure out the legs for the top.  To make this easier,  we built a temporary frame of 2x4's to position the top on.  this allowed us to shift it for and aft to find the location we liked best.  After that is was time to get the legs made.

Initially we tried making patterns out of cardboard tube and having a shop fab  the leg up for us,  but this turned out to be a mistake as it took a long time and in the end the fist design for the legs was too light.  The second time around I cut and marked the legs myself and found a local welder to weld the legs up in stages so that I could verify my work ( If you need a welder in Durham, let me know and I'll pass on his contact info, his work was beautiful!!).  In the end we ended up with a hard top dodger that is 3/4" marine ply (glassed) with 4 schedule 40 pipe legs that you can pretty much dance on!!


Now we're just waiting for the Canvas guy to do his thing.  Today he came by and installed the track on the underside of the dodger.  This track will support the top of the sunbrella sides.

The "canvas guy" has been around and done his thing and its turned out exactly as I had envisioned in my head! The hardtop dodger rakes back at an angle that matches the lines of the coaming and adds to the "windshield" look of the front.  The center section can be unzipped and rolled up or removed entirely as can the sides.

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