West Marine awning. How do I rig this thing?

[sanibel sailor]

A few years ago I picked up a like new West Marine canvas boat awning on Craigslist. No instructions. No longer carried by West Marine. Anyone familiar with this item? I’ve tried putting it on frontwards and backwards and can’t make sense of one end. One in the square cut. The other has pairs of zipper and some weird flaps. Also seems I have it upside down at the moment.

I think it is meant to be used with poles.

[JPA Cate]

Never had a boom tent. Did have a sun awning, once. Don't know whether or not this will help, but I'll share a few random ideas.....

What you have there may have been designed to fit a particular make & model of boat.

The zippers may be for a "door" into the cockpit? From the front, it looked okay. Another possibility is that the aft end of the awning zips together along the centerline, and will require a spreader at its aft end.

Our old awning had spreaders that went athwartships. Are there pockets for spreaders on your piece of fabric? We used bungees from grommets on the fabric to the lifelines, for downhauls. [we made the spreaders from pvc pipe.]

You have a lot of fabric there, you should be able to modify it to suit your boat, either by adding more fabric if needed, or removing it selectively to adapt to the contours you have to work with. Do you know what fabric it is made of?

Good luck with it. It will be an interesting project.

Ann

[sanibel sailor]

I think it is waterproof canvas duck. Smells like m y old Boy Scout pup tent.'
I have some awning poles I'll try. I think I had it right side up, but it has a line mounted underneath. weird.

[GordMay]

Perhaps some boom tent photos may help:
➥ https://www.google.com/search?q=robs...w=1366&bih=591

[sanibel sailor]

Right side up with awning poles. Some but not all details start to make sense.

Needs some further adjustments and additional lines. I expect this will be an evolving arrangement

[JPA Cate]

Hey, John,

You're winning! Congrats!

Ann

[sanibel sailor]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Hey, John,

You're winning! Congrats!

Ann

Thanks. Did s bunch of on deck paint prep work yesterday. Difference was like night and day. Without the Sun's evil death rays, it made the Florida heat quite tolerable