hard top advice/question

[thekingfish]

i am looking for any ideas of how to make a hard top cover to replace my soft top. materials used, how to secure it, angles that should be used, and pics if u have a hard top you have done yourself. Any help is appreciated

[jimski2]

The boat that flipped over in the Gulf of Mexico with the loss of three lives, had a solid T Top with a Radar mounted on top. Whether that structure with its weight, height and sail area caused that incident to happen is open to speculation, but I would be checking the added structure and how it affects your stability in high winds.

[Tim Bromund]

No, sorry Jim, that's both incorrect and irrelevent. The boat that flipped over in the gulf had a stuck anchor attached off a stern tie down ring in 6+ foot seas that when they tried to drag it free under power, flipped the boat. The T-top had nothing to do with it. That tragedy was caused by user error.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/200 ... s.baynews9

Tim

[Diversion]

Agreed with what Tim said, the T-top was not the issue in that incident. Crazy seas and anchor issues are what resulted in that unfortunate accident.

To the original question, you can build a fiberglass hardtop by using many common materials such as aluminum piping for supports and plywood with fiberglass cloth and resin for the actual top. If you search on the GLA board, this topic has been covered with lots of input. Fiberglass work is pretty easy, just messy and time consuming.

[jimski2]

Somewhere, I think the 60 MPH winds and 17 foot seas had a lot to do with it.