Help with vinyl/plastic enclosures

You will never want an open air flybridge such as on the 58' searay if you're running at 28 knots cruise and into 20 knot winds. Thats over 50mph of wind in your face. Not enjoyable, ever.

The center front panel on the 58' searay attaches to the ceiling and is completely open, that combined with the staircase door open provied PLENTY of airflow.

I would pick the 58' over the 55' for many different reasons, however I highly dislike the amount of steps throughout the boat on the 58. But, it is a good boat for the average cruiser. I ran a 58' from Boca Raton, FL to Conneticut. You can only run 8hrs at cruise with the fuel capacity. I've also run several other 58's and 55's......and 56's......

(From an upholsterer)

If you want a custom bridge enclosure, you can easily have it made for you according to your specifications. This means you can have as many separate panels as you like, hard acrylic or soft plexiglass, or flip up vs. roll up sheets.

As far as the clear glass is concerned, I would recommend Strataglass for the front glass and standard 30-40 gauge eisenglass for the remainder. Strataglass is more expensive, but it is thicker and withstands cracking/hazing/yellowing/scratches better than standard eisenglass. That is where the majority of your wear will be.

As far a removal, when creating the enclosure, start with the standard supported bimini or hard top. All of the curtains can be build to either roll up and fasten to the top, or simply unzipped/unclipped from where they attach to the top. The benefits of this are that you can:

1) Roll up and fasten the glass when out for a short cruise or if the weather isn't cooperating. This could be typical afternoon thunderstorms or when it feels like 125º and you're running with the wind. Baking in the sun is no fun sometimes and it's nice to get the air flowing thru while having the sun shade up.

2) Remove the glass at the attachment points and collapse the bimini top out of the way. This will allow you to easily store the glass and deploy/fold the bimini whenever necessary.

If you have the top made, make sure that all zippers are double pulls and separating and the zippered areas have flaps that cover the zippers. This keeps out the majority of water during downpours. All fasteners should be either stainless steel or nickle plated brass. The canvas needs to be treated annually with 303 protectant to maintain water repellancy. All thread needs to be UV repellant. You can expect 5-8 years of service from your canvas work. More if you take care of it.

Use a quality canvas shop that other recommend so you can see their finished fit.

Not off hand, but a phone call to them or a SR dealer will give you the answer. My person oninion is that they would probably use standard eisenglass. Why would they invest in (triple) the cost of Strataglass? That would be along the lines of a home contractor putting in top of the line carpet. It does noting for the retailer except eat into the profit margin.

The panels won't flap around as they are more or less rigid.

I thought you were talking about the early 55' like late 90's.

The factory enclosure is very good actually and made of ez2cy on the ones I've run. Both the front center and rear center panel snap to the ceiling and the door going down the stairs opens. The way the hardtop is curved, there really isn't a better system for that boat. Also, are you really going to take 2 hours to remove the ez2cy and scratch it, and find a place to stow it all? It makes no sense, considering there is no lower station.

There is an insert you can buy that mounts into your enclosure that has a wiper and glass panel. Huge improvement in visibility in bad weather over the plastice panels.

Sorry can't remember the name right now.

In addition to al the good advice above, snap up panels will make the materials, whatever it is, last much longer.
Rolling up panels always seems to shorten their life by way of scratching the materials.
Removing the panels and storing same below requires care and either bed sheets or some kind of seperation between each panel or scratching occurs.
in rough seas thay slide all over too.

I have a combination of Strata glass on the perimeter and EZ2CY on the front and rear panels of the bridge, which is perfect for my boat.
Also my boay has a soft top which has zippers rather than snaps to hold the panels up.
My cruise speed is around 20 knots, no slapping panels.

I never remove my entire enclosure anymore but only the front and rear panels for air flow. It becomes pretty stuffy in August w/ 80% humidity and your putt putting through the ICW or restricted speed zones, but at least we arein the shade.

Sea Ray over Viking and the others, you might look into a new wife.

Buy the best most expensive one you can afford, then when you sell (all boats sell eventually) it will be easier and you will get back more of your investment.

Is this something like what you're looking for?

The entire canvas and framing structure can be removed, but we always leave the top in place. We do remove the side and aft windows in the summer and store them at home. The front windows snap up to the top and the windows in the side panels near the front roll up.

The flybridge canvas and the aft bimini are a material called Stamoid. It's more UV resistant than Sunbrella, and is much easier to keep clean than Sunbrella.

The plastic looks like strataglass. BTW, you might want to resize those pics.

The only problem with Stamoid is that in humid climates, it tends to get little black dots in it. This is a minor mold issue (if there is such a thing) which occurs between the pressed together layers of it. The top will look clean from the outside, but when sun shines through, you'll see the spots. And no, they don't come out.