The companion way on the Catalina is nice and wide and wonderful for getting in and out of the inside. Unfortunately so do the flies and those nasty mosquitos. So we looked into getting an insect screen. We found that those manufactured solutions were pretty expensive.

Friends of ours mentioned that all that they do is use bridal veil held in place with soup cans. Well I’m not crazy about having soup cans dropping on my head but we liked the idea of the veil. So we picked up some black veil material from Fabric Land, so twisted galvanized chain from Home Depot and made our own fly screen.

Companion Way Screen

The leading forward edge of the screen was reinforced with interfacing and button holes sewn in to match up with the deck fasteners for the dodger. The two sides and the bottom edge had the chain sewn into them. This allowed the screen to naturally drop into place, following the top and side contours.

Forward Edge of Screen

Chain Sewn into Screen