Sailing with a Bimini

[Ken Cobb]

This may be a dumb question, but do most of you sail with your Bimini up? I can see the wisdom of keeping the sun off of you, but how do you keep an eye on your your sail trim when sailing that way? I will probably have a Bimini on my next boat, and want to know more about how they can be used.

 

[Al Sandrik]

I hate it but my crew...

i.e., Girlfriend is very fair skinned and burns instantly. Right now my neck hurts from trying to look over the back edge of the bimini to see the wind indicator, during today's sail. You can get a plastic window sewed into the bimini with a flap that you unzip when you want to look at sail trim/wind indicator. I'm going to do that when I get the bimini restiched this fall (if I still have this boat).

 

[Brad]

Wind instruments

That is why they manufacture wind instruments. You can also use tell tales on your shrouds to help gauge the wind direction ( although it will be the apparent wind and not the true wind.)One can also watch the shape of the sail. It takes some getting used to but it beats cooking in the sun. (However, in Ohio the sun never shines any more...)

 

[Jon Bastien]

We have 2 bimini's...

...One over the companionway, and one over the cockpit. When cruising, we put them both up; If we're racing, we may lower one or both of them for the duration of the race to make it easier to see the sails and also to make it easier to move around on deck. It's a little bit of a pain for the helmsman to twist into the appropriate contortions to be able to see the tell-tales and the windex with the biminis up, but it beats getting roasted in the south Florida sun! After a while, you get used to sitting in a place where you can just lean over a little to see the tell-tales and you hardly notice the extra effort- At least I don't...--Jon BastienH25 'Adagio'

 

[David R. King]

I sail my 26 on Banderas Bay in Mexico with the bimini up, all the time. IWe need it for skin protection in this climate. There don't seem to be any problems. However, having said that, I'm going to take it down for the next trip and see if that affects weather helm.

 

[Ken Pfaff]

Sail with Bimini

Yes I sail with the Bimini up. After having 2 spots of Basel Cell Skin Cancer removed from my head a couple of years ago I take extra care when sailing. My last boat also had a Bimini which we also sailed with it up and it was a pain the the neck to see the Windex. That is why on my new boat I got a wind direction/speed indicator which makes it so much better. By the way my bimini has a window in the top to see the windex, but so far I have never opened it.