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I have seen very few hard dodgers that I feel are attractive or appropriate for the lines of the boat they are mounted on. Most fit one of two categories: Snoopy's dog house or WWII gun turret. Of the few I have seen that I liked, about 1/2 turned out to be inspired by the article I wrote 10 years ago for Cruising World magazine on how to build a curved hard dodger. I was pleased and flattered that my article inspired others.

I do not like the "dodgers" that are at full standing headroom height: usually just windows on the front of a bimini. This almost always spoils the lines of a boat (assuming the lines were attractive to begin with).  As well, it means you are always looking through windows when steering the  boat. Only glass will last very long without becoming cloudy, but even it quickly becomes covered in salt in adverse conditions. Peering through vinyl windows while navigating an inland waterway is like a bad acid trip. Fellow Traveler  came with the traditional separate dodger and bimini, and this just looks "right" to me. As well, by merely standing up at the helm, I can peer between the dodger and bimini for an unobstructed view forward to dodge, for example, the clear plastic jugs used as fishing trap floats around Martinique or the huge logs floating around the San Blas following a heavy rain.

My new hard dodger is very much like the one I built for my previous boat, Lobo, seen here. To give you a quick rundown of how I molded this dodger, I build a jig that consisted of a box made out of 2x10 pieces. I do not remember the exact dimensions, but figure it was about 4x4. I cut two slits into two of the sides of the box that would allow me to slide pieces of plywood into them. I made the slits angled, one forward, one aft, to come close to the approximate final shape of the dodger, but this is not really necessary.  The two pieces of plywood were 3/4", but cheap plywood as they are only used as a form. I then screwed some scrap pieces of 2x4 between the two pieces of plywood to lock them in place, and screwed some scrap pieces along the edges of the 3/4 plywood to provide plenty of places to screw down the thin plywood you will be molding around this jig. You have, at this point, basically created a male mold. You want this mold (or jig) to be slightly longer fore and aft than the finished dodger will be. You will understand why shortly. To mold the dodger, you want very thin plywood. Ideally it should also be exterior grade and very clear grain. Yeah, right. But, since I could never get all that, I settled for clear, thin plywood and figured the Epoxy it all gets coated with makes up for the rest. Below is a 3D mockup of what the jig should look like.

An aside on shape: experts will tell you that you can bend plywood into either sections of a cylinder or sections of a cone. You can not bend it in two directions, so if you want a WWII gun turret dodger, you will have to chose another material. But, the typical canvas dodger has these same shapes, so if you follow my approach, most people will not believe you have a hard dodger until they come aboard and knock on it.

So, obviously, the next step is to bend the thin plywood around the jig, using various clamps and lots of pan-head screws (if they will be removed) and flathead screws (if they will be left) into the blocks of wood and 2x4's you have provide just for this purpose. As you do this, remember that any screws driven in the middle of the dodger will have to be removed, so try to do most of the screwing along the fore and aft edges, which as I noted above, you make wider than you need. After the layup is finished, you cut this area away as there will be screws with the heads buried between layers. If your dodger is large, you may have to put a seam in each layer. Try to plan so seams in different layers do not occur near each other and also have a 2x4 where the seam will occur so you can screw, even temporarily, along the edge of the seam.

After you have bent the first layer, you hopefully have your technique down because the second layer has to be put on fast as you will epoxy it to the first. I believe I molded the first dodger with just thickened epoxy between the layers, and used three layers of door skin luan plywood. I coated the outside with several layers of fiberglass cloth and epoxy. Once it was all set up, I cut off the edges with all the screws which seperated it from the jig. It will want to spring out from the intended shape, but you can put a 2x4 stringer  or two in to hold it to the correct width, held in place with a couple of pan-head screws. This makes it much easier to transport the dodger from construction site to the boat and into place without stressing it somewhere. The stringers  will need to be higher than the cabin top the dodger will be attached to so you can mount the dodger first, then remove the stringer later. I mounted the first dodger with three thru-bolts with fender washers to each side.

If you are a more meticulous planner than I you can no doubt totally finish your dodger in the shop (a parking lot, in my case). I chose to mount the basic molded dodger, then finish it en situ. I used thin strips of wood which I layered up with epoxy to build up an edge on the forward and aft edges of the dodger, letting them taper out as the dodger faired into the cabin. This provides a handhold on the aft edge and also directs any water off to the sides. Windows were made out of vinyl and Sunbrella like traditional canvas dodgers.

With Fellow Traveler I had an existing dodger whose shape I was very happy with functionally and aesthetically. So, instead of having to build a jig I could use the frame from the old dodger and save time. I used some scrap light line to tie the dodger frame into place after removing the old dodger. The first layer of plywood was bent around the frame in place. Small holes were drilled on either side of the frame every few feet and plastic wire ties were run through and tightened down to hold the plywood to the frame. A layer of matte and epoxy went over this, then the next layer of plywood over that while it was wet. I used about 75 small pan-head screws to screw the second layer to the first, then backed them out once all was solid.  If one sheet of plywood is not large enough to form the whole layer, then you want to stagger the joints. At the joint you can lay a scrap 2x4, covered in plastic wrap, and clamp it down thoroughly to hold the joint tight until it sets up.

Once again, strips of lumber was used to to build up both the forward and aft edge of the dodger. However,  I came up with an easier method of fitting these edges,. I bought lumber in the dimension I wanted (Colombia had very clear-grained cedar in a variety of sizes: I chose 3/4 x 1 1/4"). I cut this into lengths of about 18", used a grinder with a sanding disk to roughly shape the bottom edge to fit the curve of the dodger, then bedded each piece in an epoxy and coloidal silica mix and screwed them down with two screws driven in from the bottom of the dodger. More of the epoxy mix filled in any gaps between the pieces and the dodger or in the joints of the short pieces. Once the epoxy is solid, the grinder was used to round the top corners and shape the overall length to form nice curves. Three long pan-head screws on each side mount the dodger to the cabin sides. As the plywood is very smooth, I did not cover the outside with any cloth, but did paint both sides thoroughly with epoxy before priming and painting with Awlgrip.

I chose to leave the old stainless dodger frame in place, but honestly, I wish I had added an extra layer of plywood and eliminated the frame: it is very difficult to paint around.  I build my dodger en situ, not worrying about the epoxy drips as my next project was to paint the cockpit, decks, and new dodger. Otherwise, I probably would have build it in place, but used numerous garbage bags to protect the boat. If I had a nice garage or shop, then I would absolutely have mounted the frames on a bench and shop-built the dodger, but being an itinerant cruiser,  that option did not exist.

I should note that plywood is not the only material that can be used. Foam core, balsa, or hex-cell could easily adapt to this method... but try finding them in Colombia! As well, veneer would work, that is, thin layers of wood. I might have considered one of these methods if I sailed a fly-weight catamaran or ULD sled. Since I have a moderate displacement Morgan, I figured the few extra pounds from the ply did not really matter much.

As you see from the pictures, I again made windows out of clear vinyl and sunbrella. Since the side windows are fixed, I might one day bend some plexi and frame them in, but this was simple and works. Since the dodger is rigid, the attachment for the front straps of my bimini are now on top of the dodger

If you have any questions about building a dodger similar to this, fee free to email me, I hope, in ten years, I see many beautiful molded dodgers replacing the huge greenhouse contraptions so many cruisers put on their barges!