DECK
AWNING / RAIN CATCHER
©
2014 Tor Pinney - All Rights Reserved
If you're sailing south,
you'll need a proper shade awning and a way to catch rainwater.
Here are some tips for
combining these two cruising essentials.
When the boat's cabin gets
uncomfortably warm beneath the tropical sun, rigging a large
deck awning is like parking in the shade all day; the
temperature belowdecks drops 10ºF or more. Add a little breeze
through the hatches or a couple of 12-volt fans and it gets
downright comfortable, even in mid-summer near the equator.
Discuss awning designs with
your canvas shop to determine which makes sense for your boat.
Typically, a full deck awning will set a foot or two above the
main boom, stretching aft from the mainmast and overlapping the
spray dodger or bimini top. Be sure the fabric, grommets and
fittings are sturdy enough to withstand gale-force wind gusts
that occasionally arrive suddenly with squalls. Also, specify
that you want it entirely sown with UV-resistant thread.
Now consider how the awning
can be made to catch rain and funnel it to the water tanks.
Aboard Silverheels I use a nearly rectangular deck awning
the length of the main boom, with sleeves sewn in athwartships
to retain PVC battens forward, midway and aft. These spread the
Sunbrella fabric across the boat. In fair weather the main
halyard peaks the awning's fore & aft spine, giving the whole a
slight convex camber. For catching rainwater, I switch the
halyard to the midpoint of a line secured to each end of the
middle batten, and secure a short line to hold down that
batten's midpoint to a coachhouse fitting. Tensioning the
halyard then pulls up on the middle batten's ends, bowing it so
that the awning becomes concave like a big, shallow bowl. At the
bowl's low points port & starboard are barbed mushroom-head
thru-hull fittings of plastic or Marelon, mounted through
reinforced fabric patches. Hoses attach to these beneath the
awning and carry the rain thus collected directly to the water
tank deck fills.
When I'm hanging out in a
tropical harbor, I tend to keep the awning in the reverse,
rain-catching mode, i.e., with the halyard bowing the middle
batten from the ends and the downhaul in it's center. It reduces
the headroom on the coachhouse to the level of the top of the
furled mainsail, but it's all ready to replenish the water tanks
every time a kindly rain squall passes through. In this manner I
have lived for months on end with all the freshwater I want,
without ever having to fetch it from shore.
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End ~
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