27 VIGILANT Source for Drop Cover or Pilothouse Doors

[coopgraphic]

Our township Emergency Medical Service (EMS) boat is a 27 VIGILANT. Currently the boat does not have any sort of cover for the back of the pilothouse. We were considering having a drop cover made, but I'm concerned about the time it would take to remove the drop cover or pull it aside for an emergency run.

Some VIGILANT 27 boats of have pilothouse doors at the aft end. Those doors would be ideal. I can't seem to find any source for them.

Q1: Were the Pilothouse aft doors an aftermarket item on a 27 VIGILANT?

Q2: Who is the source for the Pilothouse aft doors used on the VIGILANT 27?

Q3: Who has off-the-shelf drop covers for a VIGILANT 27?

[jimh]

Are you asking about a Drop Curtain for an open rear entrance to the Pilothouse?

I am not clear on what you mean by a “drop cover.”

A drop curtain typically has a long center zipper. It only takes five seconds to open the zipper and gain access to the helm. A drop curtain will also have two large windows, one on each side of the zipper center opening. Once the boat is underway the drop curtain can be removed completely, if desired.

I doubt you could find a drop curtain ready-made. More likely you will need to commission a bespoke design. Find a talented local artisan to make one. I would expect it will cost at least $1,200.

[coopgraphic]

Correct, the drop curtain would be for the rear entrance. Honestly I was thinking of snaps on the sides more like a mooring cover and hadn't even thought about a zippered entry. That would make it much better and faster to access the pilothouse. The doors would still be the best option due to the locking feature for when the boat is not in use but I'm betting that was a factory option and not an easy thing to find nowadays.

Thanks for the zipper idea!

[jimh]

Our REVENGE 22 W-T Whaler Drive boat has a drop curtain. We often leave the drop curtain in place while underway on rainy days.

Fig. 1. Weather canvas system by Wm. J. Mills & Co. for a REVENGE 22 W-T. Here the boat is underway on a cold and rainy day on Georgian Bay in July, 2009. Photo credit Dave B.

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The weather canvas system seen in Figure 1 has five parts:

• Flying Top
• Windshield
• Port side curtain
• Starboard side curtain
• Aft drop curtain

. The joints between canvas sections are made with zippers. The joints between canvas and boat are snaps. The lower edge of the drop curtain is kept in tension by small bungee cords that pull outward and downward on the outer lower corners of the curtain. This imparts tension on the zipper joint, so the zipper operates smoothly in either direction. In the illustration above the lower part of the drop curtain is unzippered and open so that there can be some air flow through the enclosed helm space.

The Wm. J. Mills & Co. have stock patterns for many classic Boston Whaler boats. I don't know if they have any patterns for Boston Whaler Commercial and Government Products boats. If you contact them, tell them you hear about their canvas for Boston Whaler boats on CONTINUOUSWAVE.COM.