Spray Hood for 411 - New Concept
Hello everyone -

Christian was kind enough to look for detail dwgs for the S&S design for the 411 hood, and send me some pictures (thanks Christian). Although I have seen the design before on other Swans, I think it was the perspective of one of his shots that gave me what I think is a really good idea. The basis for my idea is a) the 411 is very tight to put the hood in, considering the distance and spaces athwartships - so in the 411, the hood hardware has to install right on top of the narrow raised strips of glass, immediately outboard of the sliding hatch/cover for the companionway, b) the tubing to hold the frame is costly to fabricate and requires poking more holes in the boat to put in, c) the hood must be folded out of the way or you have to duck under for ingress/egress, and most importantly d) there is a tubular structure already in place over the companionway perfectly set up to support a cover - the handholds! S0Oooo...a verbal description of my idea (sketches and photos of actual installation will follow when I get it made shortly):

I am going to have canvas (I think off white) cut that will use the handhold tubing already there. A piece with a big clear section for the front, (the clear bordered 3 inches of canvas on both sides, top and bottom, angled up and the over the flat section of the handrails to make up the main, fixed section of the 'roof' (solid canvas), extending aft to the point where the side tubes of the handrails, from over the dorads come in to the top of the fore/aft handrail tubing. On the firhtest forward bottom edge, that edge will be held down by looping around a bungee, stretched across two hooks, one each side, using screws at the base of the handholds, the aft edge of the fixed roof looping around another bungee, stretched athwartship across the top of the handholds, right behind the cross pieces. The canvas will have sections that fold/loop and snaps around both these bungees. Then, a continuous part of the same canvas, two side pieces (solid canvas, maybe with a circular hole each side to let light in) that come to the furthest aft downposts on the handholds, with a piece just a couple inches tall from the deck, these two inch pieces loop around the posts and snap back on the insides of the side pieces, so the side panels then come from the front angular tubes, aft top to bottom until the top cross member, then angle down to the two inch tall pieces at the aft down tubes. Finally, there is a cover (solid canvas) for the remaining open section in the companionway, a rectangle from the top cross tubes to the aft edge of the opening at deck level. The piece that covers this opening will roll up by hand, and be held up to the top bungee by two strips that loop around the rolled up part and snap back on themselves or velcro, you can undo the straps, then snap this piece to two snaps, one each side at the aft of the companionway.

The flap sides zip to each of the two angled side pieces when needed to close the hole to rain, otherwise, the lid stays rolled up, and the companionway is easy to climb up and down, (no poles to fold out of the way or crawl under), and the hole is still protected against spray from forward when heading into it......cheaper, should be functional, no holes needed anywhere in the boat.

Any input, improvements, comments welcome..what do you think? I am psyched to try this out, but seeking input in case I am missing something or can make it better.

Thanks, and fair winds,

Geoff
Corazon 411 #41