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The owner of a Ranger Tug wanted a full permanent top along with an enclosure on the aft deck, recalls Joshua Davis, owner of Hayden Island Canvas in Portland, Ore. Additionally, the client wanted extension awnings on the sides for more shade, and he wanted them to be angle adjustable.
“His model of boat also has seating that folds out from the side,” Davis adds. “To solve all of this, we attached hardware to the side of the boat, with a pole in the awning to keep its shape and two adjustable poles so he could angle it further up or down.
“The enclosure top was made with stainless steel and anchored with three vertical supports and horizontal bracing as well,” he continues. “The side awnings zip on and are easily deployed in the summer.”
Davis says that shade projects of all types, including temporary shade sails—those that can be easily put up, taken down and stowed away—as well as permanent shade solutions are in increasing demand.
Davis’ company is fielding more requests from clients whose vessels have attached biminis, either to an arch or hardtop, and his team is fabricating more permanent and rigid styles of horizontal frames thanks to owners who want something they don’t have to take up and down or where they don’t plan on taking the top off at all. People are also looking for solutions that offer better support and visibility.
Due to these requests and the ongoing changes in boat configurations, Davis says creativity has become even more important for marine fabricators. “The standard approaches to shade design have had to adapt,” he explains. “Often, we can’t mount any hardware in near as many places as in the past. This has pushed us to think outside the box more and to come up with designs that work for the boat and for the customer.”
Expanding options, greater flexibility
Dan Johnson, lead fabricator of Mike’s Marine Custom Canvas, Virginia Beach, Va., also notes the impact changes in boat design are having; for example, wider boat tops make it easier to add wider shades. Fabric and hardware options also have expanded, allowing fabricators greater flexibility.
Johnson says when it comes to requests for temporary shades, the demand for shade sails that don’t require tools or hardware to put up and take down is strong.
Johnson’s shop offers three main shade solutions. “The first one is a shade sail that comes off a track on the back of a hardtop on a sportfishing boat,” Johnson explains. “The shade sail stretches out to a pair of Carbiepoles® [adjustable carbon poles] that slide into the aft fishing rod holders. These offer the captain and crew a very large shade for when they are fishing and when they are rigging up the poles in the boat slip.”
He says another increasingly popular option is the ability to extend the shade sail via a zipper that runs along the bottom of the shade, allowing for the attachment of additional material, taking this to the stern rub rail and essentially transforming the shade into a cockpit cover.
Last, owners of smaller watercrafts can opt for a single, stainless steel frame using tube joints with push buttons that breaks down into four pieces, Johnson says.
“The frame mounts to the boat using low-profile deck hinges with push buttons, so no tools are needed to put up the shade,” he explains. “Webbing straps and quick-release buttons slip through an opening in the pocket to pull the shade down tight to the boat’s cleats. The whole kit breaks down into a small mesh bag and can easily be stored under the console or under a seat.”
Mike Charlton, owner with his wife, Rachel, of Charlton’s Marine Canvas in Yorktown, Va., says biminis are the most popular collapsible shades for his shop, largely because customers value the shade’s versatility since these can be installed on so many different vessels, including powerboats, sailboats, cruisers, trawlers and center consoles.
“They can also accommodate attaching an enclosure in the future if needed,” he adds, explaining this isn’t always possible with some other types of shades.
But Charlton says that sunflys run a close second in popularity. In fact, he says the demand for these is “very high” and becoming even more so. For one thing, most boats don’t have a lot of shade and aren’t being designed with this in mind, says Charlton. It’s an issue because not only have people become more aware of the damage too much sun can cause, but spending a lot of time on a boat that doesn’t provide adequate coverage isn’t that much fun.
“Typically, if you are in the shade on a boat that has no aftermarket shade solution, then you are most likely in a place on a boat that no one really wants to be hanging out in, like sitting on a T-top or on a small center console or in the cabin on a yacht,” Charlton says.
Even fishing boat owners are in the market for shade solutions, especially solutions that aren’t permanent or bulky, he continues. For example, shade may not be necessary while people are actually fishing, since they don’t want anything to get in their way. But if that same boat is used for other purposes, such as taking family and friends out for a relaxing day of cruising, those on board will probably want something to sit under, which is why temporary shades like sunflys are increasingly requested.
Broader support choices
For temporary solutions, customers want a shade sail, one typically secured to a hardtop or T-top and supported with a carbon fiber or stainless steel pole, says Steve Szenay, a veteran marine fabricator and marine education specialist for Cincinnati-based Miami Corp., a supplier of marine fabrics, hardware and components. Because of their strength and light weight, carbon fiber poles have become increasingly popular, he adds.
“There are a few different types of mounting attachments,” Szenay says. “The attachments have certainly evolved over the years. In the beginning, there was just a piece of stainless tubing stuck in a rod holder with a pulley that you secured the shade sail to. Now you have different types of snap hooks, eye straps and quick-release buckles.”
Charlton says over the past few years, he has seen the biggest growth in sunfly support poles, largely driven by how many different choices there are in terms of price points, quality, sizes and materials from which the poles are constructed. For example, a boat owner may opt for lightweight carbon fiber poles because of their handling ease, but someone else may decide on stainless steel poles since these can be bent into whatever angle is necessary to make them fit.
New materials, new possibilities
Fabrics are another consideration. In Davis’ geographic area, where people want a rain solution in addition to shade, he uses materials offering both the required strength and water-shedding capabilities, such as high-performance coated/laminated fabrics.
For smaller shades, Johnson prefers solution-dyed acrylics for their greater longevity; for big shades, he favors WeatherMAX™. “It can handle stronger winds and also stores easily,” he says of that fabric. “For permanent shades, we like to suggest a mesh material so that any water accumulation will run right through it and not build up on the top. You still get a nice shade and are able to look through it.”
Charlton agrees he sometimes uses a mesh when he doesn’t want water to run off the shade but through it. For tensioned shades, he typically seeks out lightweight fabrics since these are easier to tighten and therefore resist sagging.
So how does a fabricator determine what shades, fabrics and support structures might work best for a client?
Communication is key, says Szenay. Questions he poses include which areas of the boat the clients want to cover, their budget and whether they’re open to suggestions. “Some boaters might look for a cheap shade sail system, but those don’t typically work very well and provide only minimum coverage, not to mention they are a hassle to use and not very sturdy,” he says.
Charlton begins by asking if the customer is looking for a permanent or temporary shade structure. The boat’s style also factors into the equation, he says, explaining that some boats will accommodate all kinds of shade structures while others may be limited in their scope.
“I also pay attention to how fast the style of boat can travel,” Charlton says. “Some boats travel at a max speed of 6 mph, others at 70 mph. This will play a major role in determining whether the shade can be left up while traveling or whether it needs to be taken down.”
Due to all the advancements that have happened over the years, marine fabricators now have more options than ever to offer clients, says Johnson. “And the more innovations to come in the future will decrease our limitations and we can get as wild as our imaginations,” he says. “We would love to come up with a design for a shade sail that could inflate like a surfer kite. And we would love to eliminate frames altogether.”
Pamela Mills-Senn is a freelance writer based in Seal Beach, Calif.
SIDEBAR: Expanding coverage
One issue with typical shade sails is that when the sun is no longer overhead, the shade disappears, says Steve Szenay, marine education specialist for Miami Corp. To improve coverage, Szenay (shown in the photo below) fabricated a solution for his personal craft, a 30-foot Sea Hunt center console.
“Instead of just using two Carbiepoles® to support the shade sail, I use four in the bow and four in the aft end,” he says. “This provides me with an extra 18 inches of coverage on each side of the boat for an extra 3 feet of shade protection.”
Rod holders support the poles, which required Szenay to do a bit of tinkering. “These poles will now pull in the opposite direction as was originally intended, and you no longer have two screws holding most of the tension. Instead, you have only one,” Szenay explains. “Therefore, it’s important to secure the rod holder with backing plates because the gunnel where the rod holders are installed doesn’t have a lot of fiberglass to secure to and can pull out when under tension.”