Quote:
Dang Denny,
You make Conrad Hilton look like a street urchin. 
Couple more questions:
1. What do you use your fore cuddy storage locker for, and does it have a liner or just the hull there?
2. Are those new stays on your bimini at the windshield?
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Hey Gillie,
That Conrad Hilton crack is a good one!! Never heard that before!
1. My anchor locker does have a fiberglass gel-coated bottom in it. It's about 5-6" above the bunks. If you pull the bulkhead, there is an access hole for the bow eye in vertical surface aft of the shelf. I keep a lot of stuff in there: 300' of 7/16" anchor line and 20' of chain, a big 1M candlepower 12V spotlight, spare oil for hydraulic steering, and the barbeque grill, when it's not in rod holder. I may cram other stuff in there if there's room when I need the bunk space! The grill can be a problem because it gets in way of anchor line, so I only put it up there when anchored for the night when I need to clear out some room in the cabin. I had to put a mesh screen (an old nylon mesh dive gear bag) over the opening to keep the line/chain from falling out onto bunk after I moved the hawse pipe aft to center it over the anchor locker. It just hooks over some screws I put into fwd side of bulkhead.
2. I've had those side supports on the Bimini for years. Most Bimini's are pretty wimbly affairs, but mine is rock solid with those supports, and makes a great handhold when going around the side to front deck! The supports were just made from some short pieces of tubing and bimini top fittings. I posted some pictures of it some time back, but here they are again.
You'll notice I also braced the radio antenna off windshield with some turnbuckles. A lot of guys just cantilever it off the gunnel, but I'm sort of a "belt & suspenders" type . . . if you can easily support it, why not?!! What I did was slip a piece of schedule 40 PVC over the antenna, with a wood block and a couple of pad eyes attached to it with some fg tape and epoxy. The wood block rests against the outside of bimini frame, and the turnbuckles can be adjusted to pull it tight against the frame which is held away from the windshield by the bimini supports mentioned above. I used a couple of fast-pins thru the turnbuckle ends into the pad eyes, so they can be quickly pulled to lower antenna. I also replaced the screws in the bimini supports with fast-pins, so I can quickly lower the top when coming up to a low bridge, etc. The PVC pipe support works well because it's a "soft" support for the antenna which allows it to move around some inside the pipe but limits the motion. Sometimes if you try to support something too rigidly, you'll create a "hardpoint" stress concentration and cause it to crack at the support, creating the very problem you're trying to avoid! In other words, "Better" can be the enemy of "Good Enough" if you're not carefull!
Denny