Using titanium for top fittings is a very wise choice due to the amount of corrosion that a less noble metal in this position suffers. Constant exposure to the elements and a harsh marine environment mean certain eventual failure for a material such as stainless steel. Titanium, however, remains corrosion free throughout the lifetime of the vessel and then some.

Top fittings are hardware pieces that connect a boat’s dodger or bimini tubing together and to the deck or cockpit, usually by a small pin or screw hooked to a hinge mounted there. Top fittings primarily consist of top caps, jaw slides and deck hinges.

The top cap is a tubing end cap that has an elongated flat protrusion with a hole going through it near the end. Top caps are usually secured to the tubing by either tightening a set screw through a threaded hole near the bottom of the cap or by being welded onto the end of the tubing. The top cap is then attached by a pin or screw to either a jaw slide (attached to the middle of the tubing) or a deck hinge (mounted to the vessel).

A jaw slide is a fitting that slides onto the tubing and is secured in place with set screws. They are designed to attach to a top cap by a pin or screw. The jaw slide is made from a piece of tubing that’s inside diameter is slightly larger than the outside diameter of the tube it is mounted on. Two triangular shaped plates with a hole going through them spaced apart slightly wider than the thickness of the top cap protrusion is the joining mechanism. Once the hole in the top cap is aligned with the holes in the triangular plates, a pin or screw is inserted through them and secured, making for a hinging joint.

Deck hinges, similar to jaw slides, have two triangular plates with a hole through them for attaching to a top cap with a pin or screw. Unlike the jaw slide, the two plates are connected to a rectangular flat plate which is to be mounted to the cockpit or deck. Once a top cap is attached to the deck hinge, the tubing is able to be angled as necessary to fit the design of the bimini or dodger.

A chronic problem with stainless steel jaw slides and top caps is that they rust between the fitting and the tubing, dripping rust all over the boat, the dodger or bimini fabric and the see through plastic making a horrible mess. Anyone who wants to keep their boat looking nice must spend hours of scrubbing to remove this rust. Titanium is corrosion free, so no rust and no mess.

It is a strange fact that the cost of dealing with rusting stainless steel on dodgers and biminis more than offsets the additional cost of a titanium dodger or bimini.