X Arches

[carriacou]

Hi Ole knowledgeable ’ers,
We've been thinking we would like to leave the Bim up all the time and use the cover to protect it while trailering. GOOD Idea or BAD.

The few times we have left the Bim up it was in the way when we board from the rear.
We see that many of you have arches on your boats and we were trying to find out:
1. how did you mounted the arch to your X
2. what kind of arch did you get
3. where did you get it
4. would you do it again
5. would you change anything in hindsight?

Thanks

don

[Duane Dunn, Allegro]

1. how did you mounted the arch to your X

My arch is bolted to the inside of the transom on each side. I put in access plates so I could get to the nuts. I used a plate of scrap aluminum on the inside as a backing plate.

2. what kind of arch did you get

Mine is aluminum, I feel it is a much better choice than the heavy stainless steel tube ones. It is very light. It is also a very easy material to work with. It's simple to drill for adding new attachments to it, much easier than drilling Stainless Steel tube.

3. where did you get it

I made mine in my back yard. My neighbor found a piece of scrap aluminum channel 20' long for me. I cut out vee shaped notches in the sides of the channel which allowed me to easily bend it to the arch shape. It took 6 notches to fit the boat, the four upper ones that allow it to make the four 45 degree bends up top, and two small notches down lower that allow the bottom ends of each vertical section to bend in slightly to match the angle of the inner transom. I then cross braced it with some wood and gave it to my neighbor to weld. He welded all the now closed vee cuts I made so it was once again a stiff unit. I then went after it with a flap wheel sander and ground all the welds and polished the exterior. For a piece of free scrap material it came out quite nice. I designed it to be tall enough that, with our bimini folded back in a boot and held up by the aft bimini support legs, the mast on the roller clears above the bimini. We never have to fold the bimini down, just back, and our's is the very tall Dowsar bimini.

After mounting it on the boat I then added all the various mounting hardware for all the things I have on it. It carries on the starboard side, outboard, our life ring, inboard, our BBQ, aft, the lifting arm for hoisting our dinghy motor off it's bracket, up top the VHF antenna and the GPS antenna. In the center up top it has the roller for the mast and an LED anchor light. On the port side outboard it carried the lifesling, inboard, a fishing rod holder into which goes our BBQ table or our 400' poly shore tie spool.

4. would you do it again

Without a doubt. Moving all the stuff off the aft puplits onto the arch had made a big difference in the look and organization of the boat. It get's the gear more inboard so when you are against walls, such as the locks, nothing rubs against the wall. It's also go plenty of space and capacity to add more stuff like some solar panels some day. It's also far stiffer than the old aft mast crutch was. Rolling the mast forward and back is now very smooth and easy.

5. would you change anything in hindsight?

No, I've been very happy with the design I came up with. When the mast is down on the trailer we simply pull the BBQ table out of the rod holder and have easy access to the boat through the transom using a two step step ladder we always carry in the truck when launching.