Shadetree Boat Awning Systems - reconfiguring with fasteners - 2017

Debbie and I picked an empty store front at Marina Mazatlán to work on our Shadetree boat awnings.

They are not used as Shadetree boat awning systems anymore. The poles kept breaking and they took too long to set up. They did not hold up in windy conditions as well as how we are using them now. We have set them up not using the poles that come with them. We drape the stern one over the boom after we take the sail off for summer storage. For the bow we use our whisker pole and run it from the mast to the jib and drape over the forward Shadetree. The forward one is quick and easy to set up at anchor and that shades the hatches in the head and the stateroom. Good for napping without the sun coming in!

Middle of May 2017 - Tied up in Marina Mazatlán, Mexico

We were where the red arrow is pointing. Find the red arrow😏

We had made connection pieces for the space by the mast.

On each side of the mast the shade from the Shadetree did not cover that space and the sun and wind and rain would of course come in. The sun would find its way into the salon hatches. We made pieces of fabric to cover that area. We used snaps to attach them to the Shadetree parts. Last summer was the first summer we were not on the boat as we were away getting my new hip. We had reports from the people watching the boat that the snaps would come disconnected  in some places on high wind days. So we are installing twist fasteners in between the snaps and that will solve that.

Nice shade.

Installing a twist fastener.

Installing a twist fastener female side.

Wacked my thumb.

I am 70 years old and thought that whacking my thumb

with a hammer was over but obviously not!

Ouch! Lucky that it does not need drilling and it hasn't fallen off, yet.

Meanwhile some laborers were loading some tables and chairs on a pick up from restaurant/bar Marina Mia (there was a prize fight televised a couple of nights before which drew a big crowd) and they overloaded the truck. The load became unstable and were having trouble so I went over and helped.

They are building a Best Western Hotel in the next lot over and some laborers there were at the chain link fence getting break snaks for the tienda nears us, watching on 😃

One of the laborers tried to attach the back brace once we got the load stabilized by pounding it in with a rock, kids 😄, that was not happening so I went over and grabbed our fastener hammer. It made quick work of that. Now back to work on our project.

Getting ready to pack it up.

We also added twist fasteners to the forward section of the Shadetree.

These will hold the new fabric that Debbie is going to make to cover up to the end of the bow pulpit.

This fabric will help keep the birds from sitting on the end of the whisker pole where it is not covered and pooping on the deck. More importantly it will keep the sun and rain off the furler and the deck and into the anchor locker. We do cover the fuller anyway and the running lights.

This is what s\v Elegant'sea looked like last summer (2016), this summer of 2017 we will improve on this setup. For instance last year (2016) shown here we did not put up the shade that runs along the lifelines.