Front screen

[Eduard]

I want to have a much larger front screen on my Volga. We (especially my son and I) are way above the rim of the screen and are sitting with our faces in the wind.
I want the angle reduced to 30degrees and the length up to 1 meter. I had an offer for 4500 Euro. To be honest that sucks. Can anyone help?

[Georg Weinstabl]

Which design do you have? The 68 type Volgas have the round sexy shape which is from design point-a-view really nice, however in practice does not give proper shelter (officer's Volga). Later models then received the new look with more square design, which was still rounded but also high (Example Red October). The later one I had as well! It gives perfect shelter and you are protected against every front wind, even if you are 2 m tall. According to me the new design looks boxy and ugly. For the boat it looks estethically too big. Typically 70-80ties when everything was functional, but not beautiful.

[Georg Weinstabl]

Coming back to your question.... price. 4500 EUR is too expensive. However, there is the glass only but there is also a framing.
both should cost less than 1500 EUR

[Eduard]

Do you have suggestions where, who? I do have a verbal description of what I want, but it does not fit here.

[Georg Weinstabl]

You don't answer my question! Which design do you have?

Material costs for UV resistant Plexiglass maximum 300 EUR. Chrome frame with frame material cost approx 50 EUR. Chrome-Basement (non-standard approx Mat. Cost 100 EUR) for fixing to hull instead of anchoring hooks (Mat. Cost 10 EUR). The frame work will be approx. 750 EUR including the hot bending of the Plexi, Mounting, laser-cutting of basement + Chrome hardware.

I presently have New design and change to custom made old design. Above are the estimated values.

[Eduard]

Do you have drawings of your latest design. it sounds intreging!

[Georg Weinstabl]

Dear Ed,

Here comes what you were waiting for:

A from the scratch new design and alternative for the old style. It is a very simple design but with a team of people rather unexperienced it was a nightmare to produce it. The parts were designed by me and are cut out of stainless steel plates. Later they had to be crimped and then welded. It started with the crimping that was done by unprofessionals that crimped wrong and also used the wrong press. The 1st welder I found was not able to make a good welding and the parts became scrap. So we had to have them cut again and find a better crimper to bend them and a better welder to weld them.

This welder was perfect!

Besides this we had to down machine one side so that we catch an angle of +15 and - 15 degrees as our boat rounded-top. Screws had to be bought and we had to cut-in a thread to some of the holes.

Shark-fin design

The assembly as a set

Set from the side!

The set consists of a middle part and two side parts. Besides this there is (will be) a lower and an upper frame. The lower frame has still to be produced and we will use very thin stainless steel sheet, which we will bend in a can production machine. For the upper frame we want to use the original Volga frame profile we still have in hand, but need to bend it according to the new shape.

The middle part will be at front screwed to the deck, fix the plexiglass and hold it down, whereas the sharkfin sides will hold the sides and back, when they slide in it.

Middle/Front part

We used 2 mm and 3 mm stainless steel sheets and I made several tries with it. 3mm parts are better for basis as they do not deform. The design is rather slim and we could have made the basis broader.

What frightens someone from doing it is, that it has several steps to be made (laser cutting, bending, crimping, welding, polishing drilling and mounting). Depending on how far away the professionals are to where you have to go to the longer it takes to have something produced.

So far to report about the prices encountered:
Stainless steel sheets .... 50 EUR
Laser cutting .............. 50 EUR
Crimping & bending ...... 50 EUR
Polishing and machining..100 EUR

The prices above do not include all travelling and time intensive after hours that I had to stay in workshops describing exactly what I want. It is very advisable to buy bigger sheets of stainless steel and have more parts cut than needed. The crimping and bending requires experience and I was lucky with the 2nd workshop, which make industrial and marine kitchens and had tools, experience and also intelligence not to destroy the material I brought them.

What is up next is the installation on board and the production of a wooden dummy shield, which will be used for a pattern. A UV resistant plexiglass will be bought and cut bigger than the pattern It will be inserted in an oven on the pattern and heated and bended untill it takes desired shape. A schoolmate of me who now builds boats will do this for me. He also needs to make these Plexiglass cooking procedures and advised me all that. There is also a more simple but unprofessional way which is made with a heatgun, where you bend on site during plexiglass installation. He says: You will not get the same results from this.

I'll keep you posted about the progress I made.

[Eduard]

Hallo George,

Danke dass du mir auf den Laufenden hältst!
My daughter has been working on our drawing, for what we think is our most “desired” form for the front screen and for 3 rims over the front middle and back of the boat. Rims that will hold a “tent”cover.
At the moment in Bucuresti Romania, after a trip through Poland and the Ukraine and can’t respond easily therefore sorry for the delay. I will post you the results in the coming weeks when I am home again and we will definitely look at your solution and learn from that. Please keep me posted.
I will also post the new and extended story of my boat also ASAP.
Pity that I did not manage to have the boat ready before summer otherwise I would have dropped by in Istanbul.
Cheers,
Ed

[Georg Weinstabl]

Nice detail to attach the navigation light on the side of the sharkfin

Navigation light on sharkfinn

We had to support the glass below with a rail