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Wind Chair Sunbrella Upgrade

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(Note: Got a little photo crazy)

I call our weather-succor chairs by their original concept name, Wind Chairs, despite the cold insulation or overhead sun shelter being equally important at different times. The high rise back extension is very effective in blocking chill winds, the Ridgerest seat padding is wonderful on cold nights, and the golf umbrella works well enough in no shade sun, but it is translucent at best and not UVA/UVB protective.

For twenty bucks this thing was worth a try (Thanks Erica for the sunstroke thread, and Kim for the idea)

https://www.beachstore.com/Beach-Products/Clamp-On-Umbrellas/Clamp-On-My-Shade-Umbrella

Unfurled that cheap sunbrella is 38 wide x 44 long. FWIW the golf umbrella is 50 inch diameter circle.

Not bad, but the clamp on that sunbrella was noted in almost every review as slipping, falling off or breaking.

No matter, I do not really want that clamp, I just want to umbrella part and the shaft. I tried the clamp anyway in a few locations and, nope, I much prefer my simpler method, which does not involve screwing a clamp in place and takes only seconds.

Clamp cut off, and saved for possible future use. The pole attachment does screw into that clamp both vertically and horizontally. Might be just the ticket to hold a deer fly trap; saved in the misc parts box.

P7120978 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P7130979 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Next, I needed sufficient height that I can get in and out of the chair without an umbrella fight. But not so high that the shaded area is overly diminished. The golf umbrella shaft height was perfect without an extension, but the sunbrella, with the clamp end cut off, needed an extra 8 inches of pole height.

Once again, an old Eureka tent pole to the rescue. The supports for the wind chair back extension use Eureka poles, so I know they fit nicely in the ALPS chair sleeves. And whadda ya know, the male ferrule end of a Eureka pole fits snug and perfect up inside that sumbrella shaft.

A little G/flex and that pole extension is rock solid.

P7130982 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The Sunbrella needed the usual pad eye pop riveted on, and a bungee ball to secure the umbrella to the chair frame lest it go Mary Poppins in the wind. The pad eye was two drilled holes pop rivet simple

P7130983 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I have no bungee ball length that would work on the ALPS, but custom length is easy, and I have naked balls. So to speak.

P7130985 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

To fit the ALPS chair that bungee ball tie down, when stretched taut, needed to be 15 inches long, so 30 inches of bungee. None of my balls hang that low. Custom work.

P7130988 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those chair umbrellas take seconds to install; drop the pole in place, wrap the bungee, sit in the shade. Literally seconds.

P7130993 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P7130994 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

And likewise take seconds to move to the other side of the backrest, depending on sun direction/angle and desired chair orientation.

P7130990 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P7130992 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The Eureaka poles for the windblock extension fit inside the rigid backrest poles on some chairs, but on the big ALPS chairs they slide into an already sewn fabric sleeve. The Eureka tent pole was not quite grippy snug enough in that sleeve to prevent the rectangular sunbrella from rotating like a windsock. A circular golf umbrella wins that round.

That windsock action with shifting shade would be annoying at best, so I sleeved the bottom of the pole with a couple wraps of Gorilla tape in a slight taper. It is now a snug fit with no windage pivot.

For $20 it was worth a shot; smaller than a golf umbrella, but opaque and UVA/UVB protective. And seemingly cooler than a golf umbrella. Time for more test sits, and some thermometer readings.
 
An admirable start to a work in progress. Trying to marry a chair and an umbrella has always been a match made in heck. I've relied upon a golf umbrella slid between seat and back with the open dome resting on my noggin. Less than ideal. So too are those beach umbrellas spiked into the sand. Best of luck perfecting this Mike. My only suggestion might be to consider a Bimini style canopy that could fold out from the seat back. Only an incomplete idea.
 
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"Misc parts box " really means misc parts room

I'm still happy with my ground screwer into the sand.. No way do I want to chase a new Ultralight flying device.. Stakes for the legs?
 
My only suggestion might be to consider a Bimini style canopy that could fold out from the seat back. Only an incomplete idea.

We actually had one of those, bought for one of my sons prone to sunburn. It is the oversized chair shown with the golf umbrella attached, and originally looked much like this:

https://www.sears.com/kelsyus-conver...Fcq5swodHusOOg

It was heavy, clunky, and massive in size with the canopy rolled around the chair when folded. And really inconvenient to carry overhead on trips to the thunderbox in the rain. It was such a failure that I removed the canopy and hinged supports, but you can see one of the clips that held the folding overhead portion in the photo of the bungee ball tie down.

While I had the chairs set up in the sun I had a test sit in each, and in a no-umbrella chair. It was not brutal temps out, which might make a better test; the hourly forecast/current conditions read 84F, little wind and only 60% humidity, but a UV index of Very High.

I think I was more comfortable under the UVA/UVB sunbrella than the golf umbrella, but would not discount conformational bias. I was definitely far less comfortable in the naked chair, even while wearing a UV hat & neck drape.

So, as a crude methodology pseudo-scientific test; I hung a temperature gauge over the back of each chair beneath the umbrella shade, put one under a UV protective hat on an unshaded chair back, and gave it an hour, shifting the umbrella chairs for a constant shaded circle.

Sunbrella, 88F. Warmer than the air temp forecast at the time, even in the sunbrella shade.

29552113128_5c76962613_c.jpg
P7130995 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Golf umbrella, 92F. Note the lack of opacity in that awning.

41614748290_e01ae60eb3_c.jpg
P7130996 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Under UV hat, freaking 96F. I hope I brought enough beer.

29552109118_fe9d169ed6_c.jpg
P7130997 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Thinking that the sun beating against the chair backs behind the little thermometers had a lot to do with those temps I altered the experiment and hung the thermometers from the stretcher rods up inside the umbrellas. And just for stupid funsies hung one on a pole at head height with the UV hat covering it. Aint crapty methodology science fun?

29552104208_a459559044_c.jpg
P7130999 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

29552096818_6ef6f95d9b_c.jpg
P7131003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Test #2
UV sunbrella, with the gauge hung inside the canopy, 90F. That opaque canopy could definitely use some double canopy heat vent slots

Golf Umbrella, gauge hung under translucent canopy, 96F degrees. Gimme opaque, gimme some heat vents. Gimme some dang sweat evaporating breeze and another beer while yer in the cooler.

The temps inside both umbrellas were two to four degrees hotter than with the gauge draped on the chair back. I guess I will not sit with my head up inside the umbrella. Double canopy heat vents sure would be nice.

Under the UV hat, also 96F. At least hatless in the umbrella shade lets the breeze get to my head and neck.

What the heck, gauge hung on the pole to bake in the sun unprotected. I know from other sunny outside thermometers around the house this would be absurd. It was, despite dangling it there for only a few minutes the gauge read 102F.

102f? I will be in neck deep water, wearing that sun hat, with a beer in one hand and rubber duckie in the other.

As an inexpensive shade improvement the UVA/UVB sunbrella solution will do. A UVA/UVB golf umbrella with double canopy heat vents would be better. I am a shade guy everywhere I go, from walking down a sidewalk to working in the yard.

One desert trips or open sunny bays I use a UV lap blanket over my bare legs in the canoe. A 50 x 50 inch piece of thin UV protective fabric from the nice folks at Bugshirt, it packs down to a softball sized ditty bag and weighs only a couple of ounces.

In the canoe it is MUCH cooler under that thin UV covering, it traps the ambient water temp from the hull undercovers, and I avoid the Paddlers Burn on my pasty thighs.

http://s1285.photobucket.com/user/Co...tml?sort=2&o=7

In camp sometimes too

http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/...y5qcGc=/?ref=1

Every little bit helps.
 
I was thinking more this style. http://cool-summer.com/browseproduct...sun-Shade.HTML
Borrowing the canopy idea only obviously. A fully splayed out sun lounger would be a beast to handle, unless you had peons to carry you litter-like. Cleopatra-like. Just a thought. Folding fabric with sewn sleeves to fit over telescoping tent poles, Bimini style? Or maybe the poles could be light flexible kite spars?
I'm just the idea guy. I leave all the rigorous testing to you. Keep hydrated my friend.
 
No way do I want to chase a new Ultralight flying device.. Stakes for the legs?

Friends took one of those folding instant Gazebo things with them on a coastal trip. And staked it down, albeit not well enough. After a windy night they eventually located it the next morning, a fair distance from camp, upside down out in the marsh and somewhat the worse for wear.

I have confidence that, with my weight in the chair, taking flight would require a F4 tornado. I just collapse the umbrella when I get up, or sometimes set the food barrel in my place as chair weight, especially with the high rise backrest extension in place, which does present a bit of a sail.

Has your screw in beach umbrella ever taken flight or blown over?


dang Brad, I am already known as The Canyon Fairy, and given to wearing a delicate flower UV lap blanket. I do like the idea of being carried about in a shaded sedan chair, but fear my sons would balk at the bulk. Peel me a grape.

I'm just the idea guy. I leave all the rigorous testing to you. Keep hydrated my friend.

There is an idea I can get behind; Mr. Yuengling and I thank you. Rigorous testing and hydration is the shop motto, not necessarily in that order.

I do have one more design improvement idea for the wind chairs, but it will require a trip to the hardware store for some narrow PVC pipe.
 
Friends took one of those folding instant Gazebo things with them on a coastal trip. And staked it down, albeit not well enough. After a windy night they eventually located it the next morning, a fair distance from camp, upside down out in the marsh and somewhat the worse for wear.

I have confidence that, with my weight in the chair, taking flight would require a F4 tornado. I just collapse the umbrella when I get up, or sometimes set the food barrel in my place as chair weight, especially with the high rise backrest extension in place, which does present a bit of a sail.

Has your screw in beach umbrella ever taken flight or blown over?

No but that doesn't mean it doesn't want to.. It always gets a little trembly so we rescrew with the thing into a new hole..( o geez umbrella porn). But I would like something bigger in diameter to cover both of us seated for more than 15 minutes before adjusting it or us.. When doing that the Helinox Helicopters want to move downwind while we attend to Senor Umbrella.

What is needed is serious furniture taming.

We have not used it in Chicago ( nor been to Chicago). Its only use has been the Everglades and the Green River. We may need it however with adjustments to adhere it to a chickee pole in the Everglades.
Since Irma the blue porta potties have been restored to each chickee and beach warranting the Blue Buoy. But there are no roofs on the chickees north of Broad River so essentially you are camping on a roasting rack.

We may just bring a whole roll of duct tape dedicated to umbrella bondage to the posts.
 
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It always gets a little trembly so we rescrew with the thing into a new hole..( o geez umbrella porn). But I would like something bigger in diameter to cover both of us seated for more than 15 minutes before adjusting it or us.. When doing that the Helinox Helicopters want to move downwind while we attend to Senor Umbrella.

Well, I will admit some selfishness; I like my time alone, or at least apart in my chosen location, not tucked shoulder to shoulder with a companion under a scant circle of shade. The sheer anywhere portability of a chair with personal sun shade allows me some freedom to sits where I wants.

I had not considered the UL weight of those unoccupied Helinox in the breeze. The wind chair has blown over (more than) a few times, especially when the high back wind block extension is in place facing to windward, where it traps a nice breeze vortex around my sweaty head. But the chair just falls over, folds up a bit, and has never moved more than a few inches.

Doing errant UL chair rescues amidst re-screwing the umbrella auger would be a pain. On a chickee the wind chairs are not likely to blow very far, but they would sink like a stone before they blew away. Maybe tie off a line across the platform boards, with the Helinox-kite legs clipped to it on the windward side.

How to best secure the big beach umbrella on a no-roof chickee? Duct tape sounds like a sunbaked stickyicky PITA when you want to move the umbrella to the other side of the platform.

Something more reusable and relocatable would be nice. Maybe a length of PVC pipe as a no-auger umbrella shaft sleeve, with three or four lengths of wide width industrial strength Velcro, permanently secured to that umbrella shaft pipe sleeve and wrapped around a chickee pole?

Pop riveted pad eye and bungee ball tie down to secure the umbrella shaft into the PVC pipe sleeve. Maybe some holes drilled through the PVC pipe and add a pin to adjust up or down for the desired umbrella height. Might even be able to achieve some advantageous / angle on the platform with a pipe sleeve Velcroed around the chickee posts, or around the side rails if that fancily built (and Irma survived).

We have a beach umbrella, maybe two. My wife uses one on daytrips to the beach. They are not very large, one person coverage at best, and the screw-in augers on them are ill-designed junk even for that size.

A serious, or at least well-designed screw auger, especially with a large two-person beach umbrella, might be a near necessity to prevent umbrella porn hole rescrewing, and the resultant airborne Helinox flyaway vacancies.

I am impressed with the opaque UVA/UVB fabric, and am not done with DIY shade upgrades just yet. I have a birthday coming up and requests for suggestions got me researching UV golf umbrellas. There were not as many UV golf umbrellas as I would have thought. This seems the best of the scant lot (and pricey):

https://www.amazon.com/UV-Blocker-U...eywords=UVA+UVB+Golf+umbrella#customerReviews

True UVA protective material. Some of the cheaper ones were just silver colored nylon, not UVA/UVB, and not opaque. Others had too frequently noted construction failures.

53 inch diameter canopy, so a bit larger than the current golf umbrella, and a lot larger than the sunbrella. And circular, so no windsock shade pivoting action, as possible with the rectangular sunbrella.

Vented double canopy, so it does not become as much of an overhead oven up inside the umbrella. I learned at least this much in the pseudo-science thermometer experiments; do not place your noggin inside an unvented, translucent umbrella on hot sunny days, it is a freaking greenhouse up there.

Positive reviews. I always read the one and two star reviews first, I would rather know what did not work, and read the conformational bias It is great, only used it one time, but. . . . . 5 star reviews last. No worries there, it does not need to fit the existing umbrella receiver on my golf cart.

We currently have a family 4-pack of high-back Wind Chairs, and two umbrellas fitted with pad eyes and bungee balls for personal shade; the search for best UV umbrella shade continues. The most effective sunbrella and chair will likely go in a DIY Seattle Fabrics heat-sealable dry bag.

With a key tag ID on the drawstring labeled

Mikes Chair
HANDS OFF
 
Bungee Dealy Bobs for securing to post would be less messy than duct tape for sure.

https://www.bdbcanoe.com/bungee-dea...asts-canoeing-camping-hiking-mountain-biking/

I usta have some. need to get more.

Now how to mount that Anti Melanoma umbrella to the thwart in back of the bow seat for the Green River. A BDB would help.. but an umbrella grip diameter two cup holder possibly glued to the canoe floor? Hmm a portable "Umbrella mast step " is needed.
 
Bungee Dealy Bobs for securing to post would be less messy than duct tape for sure.

I have some Bungee Dealee Bobs somewhere. The bungee cord on those things is pretty skinny and probably no match for a beach umbrella strapped to a chickee post in the wind.

As usual I over thought that golf umbrella secured to post idea. Skip the PVC pipe and industrial Velcro, just take a couple of 2 foot long cam straps or ratchet straps and strap the umbrella shaft directly to a chickee post and move it or you for best shaded results.

Now how to mount that Anti Melanoma umbrella to the thwart in back of the bow seat for the Green River. A BDB would help.

The umbrella grip is in the way of most easy solutions. I just slice the handle on both sides of the shaft and it peels right off, leaving the full length of the umbrella shaft intact.

PC160113 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

In researching UV golf umbrellas I learned that there are clamp-on umbrella handle receivers, used on golf carts. A naked shaft works best for me (more umbrella porn).

On the chairs the umbrella shaft just slips into the tops of the poles that support the backrest, or into an already there sewn fabric sleeve (see Hates Sewing). I have an improvement in mind that would not require cutting the stitching to reveal the top of that chair pole or open the sleeve.

On the motor canoe the mini-bimini umbrella shaft slips through a narrow webbing loop pop riveted at the gunwale edge and seats in a mini mast step epoxied to the side of the seat frame, with the usual bungee tie down.

P1100394 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

If you want to skip the golf cart receiver for the handle, and skip the epoxied mast step and pop riveted webbing loop, McCrea Boatworks now offers this.

P7181006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P7181008 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

$49.95 plus shipping and handling. Umbrella not included.

an umbrella grip diameter two cup holder

I tried. The standard size two holer console was unstable with a large umbrella. While a smaller umbrella worked the shade was minimal.

P7181011 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
 
In all seriousness I would not recommend putting an umbrella on a moving canoe. Even on the big motor canoe the umbrella is for stationary use when the boat is used as a camping platform.
 
In all seriousness I would not recommend putting an umbrella on a moving canoe. Even on the big motor canoe the umbrella is for stationary use when the boat is used as a camping platform.

I have seen them work well on canoes floating downstream on the Green.. Of course around the next canyon there could be a sinister funnelling headwind that will make you feel like Dorothy in Kansas.
 
Mike,

In the past you have talked about using sails on your canoes. Maybe you should try to think of a way to use the sail and some tent poles as a sun shade for your chair. One less thing to buy and carry around.

Kayak_Ken (in a canoe)
 
In the past you have talked about using sails on your canoes. Maybe you should try to think of a way to use the sail and some tent poles as a sun shade for your chair. One less thing to buy and carry around.

Speaking of tent poles maybe use the rain fly off your tent instead of a sail.

Ken, I have dedicated sails for most of our boats. And, of course, rain flys for all of our tents. They do their specific design job well and I would not ask more of either.

Back when we family paddled in tandems we rigged a small camp tarp aloft on poles, with rough cut catamaran rigging thwart-tied between the two canoes, on a long fortuitous tailwind lake stretch. One trip should have been enough, but we tried it again.

It worked well enough, for a while. The DIY catamaran thing is unwieldy. And requires a lot of pre-launch set up, although having two sternmen at the rudders does help. That catamaran business was also an awkward PITA when the wind died.

Most often we used golf umbrellas in each (unattached) tandem as bowman held sails. Having a young bowkid holding a golf umbrella up front in a tandem canoe was surprisingly effective in a tailwind; it did not require much muscular effort from them, it was a lot easier to rig, and took easy seconds to collapse compared to taking down tarp pole masts or detaching catamaran saplings.

One of the best early sailing trips I ever did was with an experienced small boat sailor, who knew how to read wind riffles and waves on the surface, holding a golf umbrella in the bow of an 18.5 foot water rocket tandem.

He knew what he was doing up there, and I did not need to be leaning into a paddle rudder for all I was worth in the stern. We flew down that bay, easily outpacing our trying-to-catch-up tandem paddling companions, and I did not have to do much other than plant an easy hold on a paddle blade rudder, and switch rudder sides when he asked me as we rounded points of land. Yass sir Boss, switching to a left rudder.

Aye matey, theres the rub. In a solo boat, at least without a foot controlled rudder, even simple downwind sailing can become need-three-hands complex.

But, in a tandem, in a tailwind, a simple takes-up-no-space, multifunctional golf umbrella, held vertically in the bow, with some paddle blade rudder in the stern, can be a sweet/fast/near-effortless ride. That opportunity is simply too good to pass up when it happens.

One little recognized benefit of sailing a canoe or kayak, even rudimentarily downwind; no matter your previous paddling experience, moving under sail provides a whole new education in reading and appreciating of the nuances of wind on water. A windage education that transfers well when paddling without a sail.

Oh the things you will notice, and the places you will go

https://www.google.com/search?q=oh+...AhWEmuAKHUnfCIgQ9QEIKzAA#imgrc=HJ2MSdpdRg0NhM:
 
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