Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Okay, I always figured my boat would be quicker with the bimini top closed, I was wrong. I am now getting 1-2MPH faster with it open but don't really understand why.

Is anyone else experiencing this?
Why would this be?

Thanks
Bill

lift

Your bimini acts like a parachute and provides lift to get more of your boat out of the water

Tail wind.

My old toon was the same way 2-3 miles per hour faster with it open.

I need to get me a bimini!

Ok, so what is a bimini safely rated for I'm always afraid its going to tear or rip right off the boat ours does not have the straps to hold it taught it has the two aluminum legs that snap in to the rail on the front if one is better than the other I don't know but I thought I would try to be specific for the sake of my question

Thanks guys. I agree that lift is allowing for the increased speed. I was also concerned with how durable the bimini would be at higher speeds.

This last weekend, I was making 36MPH with the bimini up and by and large, it seemed to be doing fine. However if its windy and especially with a cross wind, it will start to whip in a way that says you better slow down or something bad is likely to happen. In fact last year when I had the factory plastic pole mounts on the boat, they fatigued and the bimini let go and flew back at top speed. This caused a main bow to break and that required repairs. I then replaced the weak plastic mounts with aluminum mounts and put some safety buckles on as well as to avoid high speed surprises in the future.

Hopefully Suntracker engineered the bimini to withstand the higher speeds of my NV log boat.