Need a Dodger

[Nereid]

Hello delightful folks!

I am trying to get a dodger, and I saw a kit by sailrite for a dodger.
Anyone have experience with the kit or a good place to get one?
I have only found one shop in town that will make it, for an arm and a leg ~3400 USD, and the usual sketchy guy that walks around the streets in a trench-coat at night hasn't asked me yet "do you want to buy a dodger" so any info would be a help!

Thoughts?
Thanks!!

[Hooligan]

 I have seen Sailrite dodgers that people have made. they never look right to me.  Dodgers are expensive but there's a lot of labor involve. Our boat takes a pretty big dodger, $3400 does not seem like a bad price. You should get about 8/10 years from one. I am having a hard dodger being made now. I will post some pictures when it is done.

[Nereid]

So the cheapest outfit in town quoted me at $4500 USD and would take 5 months, since they are busy, so I have decided to go the rout of making my own from sailrite.. I will post photos of how it goes... If anything I will learn to become a good seamstress

[SV Alfresco]

I bought a Sailrite LSZ-1 a couple of months ago. With no sewing experience, it was like trying to handle a race car with a learner's permit. Have done a few simple projects like throw cushions and tote bags and feeling more comfortable. I have some work needed on my dodger but going to limit it to a window replacement and resewing some stitching for now.  Sailrite has lots of great videos on a lot of projects. I think doing a dodger is one of the more difficult, but doable. I would start out with some simpler projects, like a wheel cover and work up to more complicated projects. I read somewhere on their site about a guy that built his own dodger but not until he had watched the video about fifty times. I you don't presently have a dodger on your boat, you'll need a frame constructed and make sure it fits and doesn't obstruct anything, like the mainsheet, before attempting any canvas work.  BTW, the LSZ-1 is the one to buy even if you don't use the Z stitch. In the end, it will cost you a lot of money for the machine, canvas, window material,
grommet tools, and more, but if you have the time it will be worth it.

Good Luck,
Mike

[PeteW]

I'm leaning toward a hard dodger.  This one is on a Pearson 36.
Built from door skin that's formed over the frame a glued up with cloth
And West Systems epoxy.

[Nereid]

Thanks guys!! I will let you all know how the progress goes.. the plan is to have 1 large opening window in the front and hand rails on the outside as well as supports on the first bow.
I like the idea of a fabric one so that it can be fully collapsed down when its super windy or in the way.
I will do my best to keep track of the cost and time spent working on it as to give future on goers info!
Thanks!

[S/V AMITY]

Pictures too!

[PeteW]

An advantage of the hard dodger is you can mount flexible solar panels up there.

[Nereid]

I will be sure to post photos.. Made a few sailbags this weekend to practice sewing and they came out great! The sailrite kit gets in today.

I have 560W of solar and 400W wind and my controller wont let me add more panels haha .
I do however have 280W of flexible up on my Bimini and that works pretty good the fabric doesn't droop--Even though its a fabric bimini.

[S/V AMITY]

You can make a dodger... just don't be afraid of making a few mistakes as you go along.  Don't worry if it isn't perfect.  Study dodgers on other boats and see how they were done.  If you break the project down to individual steps it will be much less daunting.  Cheers!

[Nereid]

Update:
Just finished the project this weekend.. unfortunately with work I had to cram the project into 4 days. But! got it done in 3 days and a half with a total of just over 56 hour spent on it (correct, I only had a few hours of sleep in 3 days).

I will post later the pictures but here are the lessons learned:

1)
The stainless steel frame pieces (2 bows which consist of two 'hockey stick' shaped tubes and one slightly bent center tube each) had to be bent. The amount of curvature on the frame would make the dodger look like a shoe box since our coamings are so far apart (~84"), and yes that is where I mounted it, on the coamings close to the coffin top and it works great, it is also where the holes of the previous dodger was installed.
Basically to make the lines look correct I had to bend the middle section in 4 places and unbend the hockey stick tubes to add more curvature to the top of the dodger (looks much much better than the shoe box)

2)
Make sure the frame actually looks good and fits under the boom. Sailrite says to "bring the frame down to be 2 inches max in front of the where the snaps go, so that you can fold it down out of the way.. This didn't work at all for me since the main sheet is just about right up on the snaps and if I made it only 2" then it would be too short to get into the companionway and would be pointless.

So some rough dimensions:

From deck/top of coffin top to spline ~23ish"
From Bow to Bow in middle 34"
From back splines straight down into cockpit (the raised bit fore of the mizzen) 53"

Also, they suggest having the longest bow be the aft bow, and I found that it would make it much harder to get in and out that way so I switched that the longest bow is the forward bow. They also discuss having the joint between the 2 bows roughly 2 inches up from the coaming mount.. I found it far more functional (for getting in and out) to raise this joint up to 9", that way you get the cover but can also put your knee through the gap between the standing rig and dodger which makes it much easier and comfortable! (Highly recommend!)

3)
Patterning was great and the kit supplies great patterning material (Durascrem or so)
just follow how they pattern in the videos, its pretty decent. Only difference is to extend the forward panel on each side to meet a snap that is 6" to a foot aft of the coaming mount on the side of the coming, this helps to create a good looking tail that keeps the spray off of the stainless better.

4)
Trace templates and cut out as they recommend. I would however highly recommend getting their Soapstone pencil, since the knock offs that I got were a real heap of S* and I had to retrace the pattern a bunch of times.
On the note of tracing out the material.. for our boats 9 Yards of fabric is really tough to fit all the pieces (unless you want the shoe box look), so I wound up adding the forward panel's facing in multiple parts which you can easily do and it faces the inside of the fabric any way (its for structural support for the snaps to installed in).
Took many tries but finally got that sorted in place.
5)
I used the Singer 4452 sewing machine (runs about $170USD which is a fraction of the price of the other $900 an up ones). The machine worked amazingly and punched through 6 layers of fabric and one layer of isinglass, the only thing that is tough about it is the foot pedal is suuuuper sensitive and will quickly have you naming it the 'One Step Ferrari'.
Stitch it all together just as they say.. but be sure to buy pins because there is too much curvature to use their 'basting tape'
6)
Cut out the window before attaching the front panel.
We found this was the easiest method so that your at the last few stitches so you risk scratching the glass less. When you stitch the top and forward panel together you will notice they do not line up as they do in the video (topside of the top panel underneath the forward panel) this is because the curvature of the middle section of the bows as well as the necessary shape of the front panel... BUT DO NOT WORRY! just pin the raw edges together and the fabric will bubble/bunch up (just not along the raw edges and you're good!). Now the markings should match right up, so stitch away and just be careful to maintain the two edges together.

And pretty much voila!
After some great creativity in cuss words and a few pin pricks you'll have a dodger in no time!

(will post pics later)

[Nereid]

Some photos of the process and product!