Our Spencer is a center‑cockpit boat, and it came with that sweet original windshield from the builder. But when we bought her, the cockpit was covered by a 20‑year‑old white canvas roof that had seen far better days. It was cracked, weathered, full of holes, and green in all the places canvas likes to hold onto moss and tree parts.
For months we loitered around other harbors studying everyone else’s setups. We looked at how their roofs drained, how far the overhang reached past the windows, and how that front arching panel tied into the everything. Every boat had a different solution, and we stole ideas from all of them.
Eventually we sketched out a design, ordered 3 sheets of 1.25” nidacore panels, and built the whole thing in a friend’s shop.
It’s been on the boat for years now, and honestly it’s probably the biggest comfort upgrade we’ve made besides adding hot water. The cockpit stays dry, shaded, and protected. Rain drains exactly where we want it — even into containers if we need to catch water. And the new canopy gave us a perfect place to mount our first solar panels.
What started as a rotten old canvas turned into one of the most useful improvements we’ve ever made.
