advice on bimini hold downs

[paul I]

My 26x is my first boat with a bimini. i have supports on the aft side but need straps to keep it open. I plan to either attach a shockle to the closest eye on the forward lifelines or buy the side mounted folding struts. Anyone have experience? The struts are much more pricey. Are they worth it? the shockle needs to be attached to the front most bow. any good ideas for attachment? Any other nice support systems?

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pat ... id=1786616
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pat ... id=1567511

[Tomfoolery]

My bimini has a single strut in the middle, at the top of the hoops, running fore and aft. My last boat had something similar. My preference would be for rigid struts, as the coaming of a sailboat is a working surface usually, and I'd rather not have anything attached to it that doesn't have to be there. Even dock line handling is easier with as little as possible in the way. Struts cost more, though.

Just my opinion.

[Wind Chime]

Has anyone installed Struts on their Dodger ?

We have the standard BWY “wide” Dodger (which we love), and it has aft arm supports (acting as hold downs) that come down from the frame and into the cockpit near each side of the companionway. With the wide dodger, the winches are inside the dodger, and with the aft support arms it makes access to the winches very difficult.

I’m thinking of installing struts to hold the dodger open, and remove the aft support arms. I’ve seen the collapsible ones, but I am thinking of just uing the standard hardware with the quick release pins like the rest of the dodger has.

[Tomfoolery]

If you do it, please post pics. The dodger is annoying, mostly for that reason, and I've going without sometimes. But I can't use the bridge without it, so some other strut scheme would be interesting to me.

[Wind Chime]

My working plan is to;
- replace the cockpit arms with a port and starboard strut; where the yellow line is in the photo.
- use same quick-relase hardware.