Ahoy,
Many of you have asked to show how we build our new Hard Dodger. In this episode you'll get the answer to all your questions..
See how we decided on a form!
See how we built it!
See how we love it!
It's the best dodger ever and we couldn't be any happier with it. We actually have no idea how we sailed so long without it..
It changed the way we live on ZERO so much to the better it was totally worth all the effort to create it..
Sit back, relax and enjoy.
Aloha
fay + christian

please send us a like and subscribe to our channel..

Closed Captions (CC):
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you want to know why we burn parts of

the boat

and keep on watching

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xero came with a tiny spray hood just

over the companion with

like all the biminis it was made out of

stainless steel tubing and sunbrella

not sure why anybody would put such a

tiny fragile thing on a boat like zero

we wanted something better

we started with a hard dodger first

we had to get an idea how big it should

be

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i started sketching it but learned

quickly that the only way to find the

right shape

and the proportion is to build something

three-dimensional

so i started with some cheap wood and

built a mock-up

it was just patched together with screws

and was barely holding

but it showed the dimensions and the

shape

finding the right angles and adapting

the same curve as a pilot house

was one of the key factors i could

easily work on the mock-up without

caring for details

and changed the dimensions until we

liked it

it showed quickly that the outside of

xero gets affected quite a bit

and that it was a huge challenge to make

it look good from the outside

and even though we played around with

height width

position and angles the inside looked

pretty damn amazing from the beginning

once we decided on the shape

and size we left it there for a few

weeks

we wanted to see if we like it

so weeks passed by and we got used to it

or better said

slowly used to i banged my head so many

times

especially in the beginning that my

newly founded relationship with that

dodger was in real danger

it got better after a while but the

decision was made to make it a little

higher when building it for real

all the rest looked good and we spent

many evenings

watching it from any angle to make sure

we like it

today finally is a day i'm going to

build a real dodger

so first thing is take the old one off i

want to keep it to

you know get an idea about measurements

and and stuff i took a couple

measurements

took a bunch of measurements actually

but you never know you need one so i

want to

lift it up with my boom and put it

somewhere

where i can still check things on it so

hopefully that works and then i'm going

to build it i bought wood

i'm using kaoubi which is peru mahogany

that's the plan for now and i hope i can

make a steady progress on this without

getting stuck in some details

which i have not a solution for right

now

okay let's get things started

so here is the front bottom frame

so now i prepared everything i hope you

can see that here

have the coupling nut ready

glue that in here so that will fit

perfectly

now i epoxied in these main boards here

this will be a permanent installation

i plan to build the dodger so i can take

it off

at least without too much damage i

put epoxy on it now to make a perfect

mold from that in the right angles so it

sits there

it's leveled and all angles are correct

let it cure and take it off again

then drill a couple of holes and bolt it

on

if i ever take it off i'm not breaking

off any of this teak here

which would be too bad so now i drilled

the holes for the three attachment

points

and i cleaned it all up it's oversized

to it for

the quarter inch coupling nuts so i can

put the foot profile over there

and that's what i'm going to do now take

the dodger off

and put it together

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it looks actually kind of empty without

it already so it's a good sign and i

miss it

let's build a real one

best thing about boatyard friends is

they appear right when you're about to

start working

and have a question or a favorite

starting your power tools makes them

disappear

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but even that doesn't work all the time

i'm gonna be tricky too

and i think the back will get crushed

cutting all these three dimensional

angles are

kind of tricky

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for the beams to make a little lighter

i'm using cedaw which is a local mexican

wood

[Applause]

i have this wood cut to the dimensions

mason manos already

and i shape the beams and sanded them so

they're

in the right form already they're a

little curved and i just have to cut the

ends to put it to the right length

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the two last pieces

come in like that on this side and on

this side

and then the frame is ready

all the cables coming from here power

speaker

and power for the position lights

navigation lights this field will be

my junction box and my control field for

the light switches

there will be light in here light in

here and light in here and of course

ambient light on both sides

two 14 gauge cables going down

to here having some power here for the

garden maybe a light or whatever and

for sure something over here to charge

smartphones or plug something in the

speakers will be placed in the corner

i think it's time to put the roof on

i marked where the beams will be now i

masked it off with tape so i don't want

to have paint where i

use epoxy and i think it looks good

now the drop is done

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and it looks super awesome

everything worked out great and yeah

it's quite a roof

and final inspection in the boss

what do you think

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good

everything is ready to glass over the

roof how's it going kevin

so we plan to do three layers of heavy

cloth

on top of it that makes it very stiff

glassing that beast over was quite a

task

the dodger is so big we couldn't reach

every spot

and with all the fresh epoxy on it we

needed wings to reach the middle

so we ended up to be covered with epoxy

all over

but the job was done

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the whole boat looked like a mess

we used so much epoxy yesterday

but it looks good

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big roof

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you helping me for my measurements

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window number one

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we came a long way already

just cut out the windows the paneling is

complete

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i cut all these by hand with a jigsaw

they was really nice

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looks like it belongs here

i am

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hey

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and the last job was to ask pepper to

install the stickers

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and voila dodger is ready

now more than a year later and after

sailing over 8

000 miles we still love our dodger

all the hard work the decision to move

the hatch and to build the slide out dex

table was totally worth it

it made the way we live on zero a lot

[Applause]

better

[Applause]

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so

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so

it's just me

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it's just