Tip on the older C355 JSI-made Bimini Frames

[Jeffrey Hare]

Hi all,

On some of the older hulls, JSI made the bimini frame where the mid-bow crosses and can make contact with the backstays.  It's common to use a piece of tubing to protect the back stays. There's an easy fix to this to prevent them from interfering with each other.  As someone who designs and bends quite a few bimini and dodger frames myself, this was a pretty rookie mistake but easily fixed in 10 minutes with just an 1/8" Allan wrench.

The bimini's mid bow connects to the Forward bow, leans aft and is zipped into the mid pocket. This is to provide support for the center of the bimini. In doing so, the bow has to cross the back stays.  To fix it, move the two jaw slides holding the mid bow over to the AFT bow, where they will now lean forward and still zip into the mid pocket.  Simply loosen the 1/8" allan set screws on the various jaw slides and eye ends to let you transfer the fittings over to the aft bow.

Doing this eliminates the mid-bow having to cross the outboard back stays.  

You'll simply need to adjust the position of the mid-bow's jaw slides up or down slightly once moved to the aft bow so that the top is nicely tensioned.

Jeff Hare

Solstice #17 

[bill pittore]

Hi Jeff,

 This is just genius. I had the same problem and I think the PO also had it because the backstays were worn down at those points. I replaced the backstays and my hack fix was to cut out about 2 inches from the center of that middle bow, bend the curves open a bit and connect the cut pieces with a SS coupling. I have an aluminum solar arch just outside the bimini tubing so I’m going to see if I can make this change.

Thanks!

Bill

On Jul 15, 2025, at 12:05 PM, Jeffrey Hare <cata...@thehares.com> wrote:

Hi all,

On some of the older hulls, JSI made the bimini frame where the mid-bow crosses and can make contact with the backstays.  It's common to use a piece of tubing to protect the back stays. There's an easy fix to this to prevent them from interfering with each other.  As someone who designs and bends quite a few bimini and dodger frames myself, this was a pretty rookie mistake but easily fixed in 10 minutes with just an 1/8" Allan wrench.

The bimini's mid bow connects to the Forward bow, leans aft and is zipped into the mid pocket. This is to provide support for the center of the bimini. In doing so, the bow has to cross the back stays.  To fix it, move the two jaw slides holding the mid bow over to the AFT bow, where they will now lean forward and still zip into the mid pocket.  Simply loosen the 1/8" allan set screws on the various jaw slides and eye ends to let you transfer the fittings over to the aft bow.

Doing this eliminates the mid-bow having to cross the outboard back stays.  

You'll simply need to adjust the position of the mid-bow's jaw slides up or down slightly once moved to the aft bow so that the top is nicely tensioned.

<biminimidbow.jpg>

<biminimidbow1.jpg>

<biminimidbow3.png>

<biminimidbow0.png>

Jeff Hare

Solstice #17 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Catalina355 group. To post to this group, send email to catal...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to catalina355...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/catalina355?hl=en
 
If changing the topic, please start a new message and send to catal...@googlegroups.com, rather than clicking "reply" to an existing message.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Catalina355" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to catalina355...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/catalina355/5065fb33-1bab-42c2-8dc0-eb6e9e6ca7ban%40googlegroups.com.
<biminimidbow0.png><biminimidbow3.png><biminimidbow.jpg><biminimidbow1.jpg>

[cata...@thehares.com]

Bill,

 

If your modified bow doesn’t work very well for you or you just want one that’s perfect, I’ll make you a new mid-bow out of 1” 316L polished stainless pretty quick.  I have frame bending equipment (since I’m a distributor and also teach frame design and fabrication). Quite a few canvas shops in the industry use my online frame design software to design dodger, bimini and other boat top frames.  You can email me off-list if you have questions.  Been a while, we should meet up for a beer sometime.

 

-Jeff

 

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Catalina355" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/catalina355/qqmSpw_1Sl4/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to catalina355...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/catalina355/BB5BE43C-9695-4A41-B849-B1AEB4D95E32%40gmail.com.