Boat Umbrella holder

[Moose1am]

Addenum:

I went fishing yesterday and tried out my boat umbrella holder. By and By it worked pretty good. I was amazed. I would like to have the umbrella cover me a little bit better. Instead of making the 1 1/2" cross members 12" long I may try to shorten them down to about 9" long. That will bring the umbrella holder closer to my bass boat chair and therefore more directly over my head.

I found that at times the sun was not being shaded very well. I had to position the boat to make the umbrella provide shade. That is not easy to do when fishing.

If you have a different style boat seat and a larger casting deck you should be able to move the holder around the pedistal 360 deg. My pedistal seat had a screw that is at the bottom of the pedistal that required me to make a cut out at the base of one of the 3" to 1 1/2" coupler. That cut out allowed the coupler to slide all the way down to the deck of my bass boat but also prevent the holder from rotating around the pedistal.



I saw in the Bass Pro Shops Marine 2004 Catalog that they were selling this unbrella holder for about 50 bucks. They had two kinds. One for 2" pedestal type bass boat seats and one for the 3" OD type Pedestal boat seats. My Bass Boat (Fishermarine Water Strider III has the larger pedestals for the seats.

I went out an purchased a 10ft long 3" ID PVC pipe and a 1 1/2" ID ten foot long PVC pipe. I purchased four of the 3" T's and already had the PVC Pipe Cleaner fluid and cement. I also purchased a 3" to 1 1/2" adaptor and a small 1 1/2" piece that had a 1/2" hole in the top of it. I had an old golf umbrella that has a 3/8" OD tube on the umbrella stem. The handle slips off the end of the umbrella also. I put one of the 3" T's over the pedestal and then glued a 3" long section of 3" ID pipe into one end of the T'. I glued another T to the top of the 3" long 3" ID pipe. The entire section fits on the pedestal of my bass seat only when the seat is in the full UP position. My bass seat easily comes off the top of the 2ft long pedestal. To the side sections of both 3" T's I attached a 12" long 1 1/2" id pipe and then did the same thing with two more 3" T on the opposite end to end up with a H shaped holder. To the top of the free T's I added a short 3ft section of 3" ID pipe and then glued the 3" to 1 1/2" adaptor on top of that pipe. Then I added the last piece to the top of the 1 1/2" pipe. That allowed me to slip a 4ft long section of 1/2" ID pipe inside the hole. I drilled a 1/4" hole though the side of the top section (adaptor.. ie. the one fits into the 1 1/2" pipe and then has the 1/2" hole in the top) The hole is drilled perpendicular to the pipe. Then I took a pipe threader for 3/8ths x 16 turns per inch and added some threads to the hole. Note: this is schedule 40 type PVC pipe and it's thick walls help in this threading. Now I added a thumb screw type bolt and screwed it into the hole. This allows the 1/2" x 4ft long pipe to be slide up and down inside the entire pipe holder. The tumb screw allows the smaller PVC pipe to be locked in place. I also drilled the same size hole at one end of the 1/2" by 4ft pipe to help secure the umbrella stem inside the pvc pipe. I took the handle off the umbrella and then slide the 3/8" OD stem down inside the 1/2" ID pvc pipe and then added another thumb screw to secure the umbrella stem inside the 1/2" ID PVC pipe.

I will try to borrow my neighbors digital camera soon and have him take a picture of the device. You can also see what it's suppose to look like by looking on page 101 of the BPS Marine 2004 Catalog. I used more 1 1/2" pipe in the vertical section holding the umbrella than the BPS guys did. They used a long piece of smaller 3/4" metal where I used the cheaper PVC pipe thoughout.

I used my Dewalt portable battery operated saw zaw to cut the pipe. A file to clean the ends, a tape measure, a felt marking pen, dremel tool (optional) and a shop vac and leaf blower to clean up the mess. LOL

The entire project cost me $43.51 for just the PVC umbrella holder. I already had the umbrella at home.

The BPS price for the 3" ID holder is $44.99 which is a great price considering all it cost me and the time it took me to build this umbrella holder. I had to make two trips to the store and it took me a couple of hours to test the fittings to get the right size before I finally glued it all together. I finally settled for 12" on the cross members between the four 3" T's. Ie. there is a One Foot offset from the bass seat pedestal to the verticla part of the umbrella holder. I tried 18" and 15" and that put the umbrella too far off to the side to actually give me the shade that I wanted.

The neighbors got a big kick out of seeing me sitting in the front of my bass boat in my driveway measuring just how high to mount the umbrella.

Note: Always cut the pipe longer and as you dry fit this stuff you can always take a few more inches off the pipe lenght to make it perfect for your boat.

I had been eyeing these umbrella holders in the BPS catalog for several years now. These will catch the wind pretty good so I intend to only use this umbrella system during the calmn dog days of summer when it's hot as the dickens and there is little or no wind. I often don't get to the fishing hole until late in the afternoon so this will come in handly hopefully.

To connect each of the 3" T's together I used 3" pipe cut only 3" long That way the T's actually are touching each other and very close together. Do the same thing on both sides. Make sure that the 1 1/2" hole in the 3" T's are identical. There is an offset to the 1 1/2" part of the T and it's either offset up or down. So make sure that when you glue the 12" long 1 1/2" ID pipe to the 3" T that you have them all the same way. If not the two pieces of 12" long 1 1/2" ID pipes will not be exactly parallel to each other. see page 101 picture "B" for a picture of what I am talking about. The pictures show the setup for 2" pedestals but I made mine larger for my 3" pedestal.

Item D in the catalog may be easier and only costs 30 bucks.


Does anyone else have an umbrella that they use on a bass boat. You guys that fish on those pontoon boats get plenty of shad if you have a top on the pontoon boat.