A Bimini top is an open-front canvas

Canvas

Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...

 top for the cockpit

Cockpit

A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft. Most modern cockpits are enclosed, except on some small aircraft, and cockpits on large airliners are also physically separated from the cabin...

 of a boat

Boat

A boat is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is a...

, usually supported by a metal

Metal

A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

 frame. Most Bimini's can be collapsed when not in use, and raised again if shade

Shade

Shade is the blocking of sunlight by any object, and also the shadow created by that object. Shade also consists of the colors grey, black, white, etc...

 or shelter from rain

Rain

Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...

 is desired. Bimini tops differ from dodger

Dodger

Dodger is a term used in sailing and sailboats. It is a frame-supported canvas structure providing a helmsman and other occupants of a sailboat partial protection from harsh weather and seas. It covers part of the cockpit and the entrance into the interior of the sailboat...

s in that dodgers include protection in front and on the sides, while a Bimini does not. The Bimini is used mostly as protection from the sun; it offers no protection from wind, rain, or spray when moving forward at any speed. Rain protection is only given if the boat is stationary and there is not any wind.

The Bimini top was invented in Warren, Rhode Island by Paul Johnson and his company, Johnson's Marine Cushion and Canvas.