We have been out of touch the past few days on the lake but I finally have a little update. I turned the plastic latches around so that they latch by pulling them to the rear instead of the front. I ran with the bimini open all weekend on some extremely rough water at speeds up to mid 30's without any issues. After running it for a while this way I decided to push it a little harder to see what happened since it's already damaged. I ran it at upper 40's for short periods and still no issues other than the wife stroking out thinking it was going to rip it off the boat at any moment. After a few runs like that I got brave and did some wide open runs hitting 52 mph and it stayed latched. Finally on our last night out after the fireworks I ran it wide open for a 5 mile stretch to get away form the insane amount of other boats leaving the show, we ran 48-49 mph the entire stretch with 7 adults on board and lots of gear plus full of fuel and that bimini stayed right where it was supposed to. The only downfall to this is not being able to fasten the front legs up when the bimini is not being used. As for all the talk of why anyone needs it up running fast, I don't need it up for that but if I'm cruising across the water and have a need to run faster that 20 mph I want to be able to without having to stop and put the bimini down. There's no reason at all that these bimini's shouldn't be able to stand at 30mph, I watch other brand toons running over that with biminis up all day long and never have an issue. My buddies new S series with the standard bimini gets ran 36-38mph all of the time with the bimini open and it's never had an issue. That is what makes me believe it's something to do with the way the curved bimini is catching the wind differently.
