New Spa!

“Worth every penny”, said Sarah.

We found a great way to add more living space to Field Trip. Sarah calls it her ‘spa’.

We took the plunge, and spent a week designing our new Sunbrella cover for Field Trip this summer. It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was down right painful. We had string strung all over the front deck, trying to find a way to make our space ‘usable’ with a cover.

Some of our key criteria:

• No attachment to stanchions – don’t want to have stanchions break in a gust or squall
• We must be able to stand up and walk forward - key if we needed to quickly fix anchor & crawling forward on hands and knees on non-skid deck isn’t fun
• Clear view around boat from inside salon – we wanted to still see outside and not be ‘boxed’ in with the sides of the canopy
• Cover our two deck hatches - we can now keep open even in rain for ventilation!
• Easy to put up and take down – if its not, it won’t get used 
• Reinforced to withstand 20kts+ of wind gusts - added batons to help add rigidity
• Light color – a light color gives a better feeling of openness overhead

Sarah resting and reading a book in breeze AND shade!

View from shroud looking forward

Cover sweeps back to shrouds for attachment

View standing on top of bimini, note support on top from halyard

The biggest trick was getting the cover ‘made’. It took us over two months of waiting from the vendor in Grenada before we actually had it delivered. It was brutal and very frustrating.

We feel like we met our criteria. We are VERY pleased with the cover, and plan on using it more than we even expected as it really gives us more usable living space on Field Trip. It’s great, and yes, even with the pain of getting it done in a timely manner, I would do it again.

The biggest plus of the new cover – Sarah will never need to go to a Spa again!!! ;-)

On mooring in Bonaire