How to Measure for 3 Point Dimensioning

A step-by-step guide to accurately measure non-standard dimensions for a net opening.

ⓘ Overview

The Sunrise Triangulation Method is a system we developed to help us design highly accurate boat opening dimensions for even complex geometries using only a tape measure so you can do this anywhere in the world (hopefully you’re floating around Fiji somewhere as you do this) 😊. We have proven this to be an incredibly accurate and very robust method with built-in error checking. If any one of your measurements is wrong it will be obvious to us and we’ll be able to catch it during design so by the time we make your net you know it’s right. It will look complex at first, but it’s really quite easy and so long as you read the instructions through a few times it should be simple to follow and typically will take you and a friend about 20 minutes to complete.

Figure 1: These perfectly fit Sunreef 74 nets were designed remotely with our customer using the Sunrise Triangulation Method.

1. Send us a picture & 2 rough measurements

First, send us a picture (or multiple pictures). Keep in mind that we don’t care about your existing net, only the boat hard points our net will attach to. It is critical that at least one picture be wide angle so that we can see the full net perimeter/attachment points. This allows us recreate all the important geometry of your boat opening so that we can be sure to capture any important details in the next step. At the same time send us 2 or 3 ROUGH dimensions (typically, width forward opening and length fore/aft of net along inside edge). These measurements only need to be within 1-2” / 25-50mm as the accuracy is developed in the following steps.

2. What we do next

We will take the picture you sent and develop a drawing that captures all the important geometric details of your boat and we will add a number of points to the drawing. Some of these points will be a precise point on the boat (these would be any sharp corners, or start/end of a radius if your boat has a corner radius, or any fixed lacing points such as Sunreef/Leapard/Pajot/Nautitech lacing buttons or Lagoon’s Ustraps) and some will be placed at approximately even distances around the perimeter to capture smoother curves & straight lines. These will be numbered (typically 14-21 points depending on complexity) and 3 of these points will also be lettered (A, B, C) as these will form the base of our triangle coordinate system. We will also send you an Excel spreadsheet (see the diagram below on this page) that you can fill out to ensure you’ve captured everything.

3. Your turn

You will then lay out all these points on your boat. It is HIGHLY recommended that you use masking tape and a pen to mark & number each point. The most important thing you can do is ensure you are measuring to/from the same point each time…I usually put a little arrow showing precisely where to measure to at each point. You will then measure from each A/B/C point to all the other points and fill these out on the spreadsheet we send you. You will note that you will have two measurements for each letter pair (A to B & B to A) that share the same cell colors on the spreadsheet we send you, this works as an error check as if you measured accurately these should be the same to within 1/8” / 3mm. If they are not, recheck your measurements and correct as needed. Send the filled out spreadsheet back to us so we can do our magic for you!

4. Ta-Da

We will then recreate your boat geometry precisely using the dimensions you sent. Because there is built-in error checking if there is an issue we will see it and let you know (each point has a calculated margin of error and we always build in extra points so if one point is off we can typically fix it on our end for you). I would generally recommend leaving the marked points on the boat for a week or so until we finish the drawing in case something needs to be rechecked but so long as you are methodical in measuring and documenting that is very rarely needed. So long as everything looks good on the boat geometry we will then draw your nets in and send to you for final approval.

5. Enjoy a great fit

You then approve the net drawing and we put the net into the manufacturing queue here and make it for you. We send you the net, you (or your rigger) installs, and then you don’t think about trampoline nets for another 10-14 years!

Figure 2: Hypothetical example triangulation drawing showing points 1-13 with 1-A, 6-C, & B-12. Your drawing will likely have a few comments on it along with arrows from the numbers/letters to the measurement points.

As of 2025 we have updated our process to include an example spreadsheet for you to fill out. Below is an example of what this would look like for the triangulation dimension example above. This is easier/clearer than noting the dimensions on the drawing itself. The color coding helps catch possible errors and ensuring that you have filled in any cells helps ascertain that there is no missing information when you send it back making drawing rechecks much less likely to be necessary.

Main Net Measurements (This is what we send you)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
A
B
C

	These would represent measurements from one point to itself which would equal 0
	These would represent the same measurement from different directions, should be within 1/8" of each other. If larger recheck.
	These would represent the same measurement from different directions, should be within 1/8" of each other. If larger recheck.
	These would represent the same measurement from different directions, should be within 1/8" of each other. If larger recheck.

Main Net Measurements (This represents what you should send back)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
A		25.375	50.875	55.75	55.875	63.25	77.875	95	97.375	93.125	49.375	78.375	33.125
B	78.375	82.25	93.375	85.5	75	62.125	58.875	63.25	63.25	50.5	25.25		45
C	63.25	46.625	40.25	28.5	15.875		16.625	34.125	38.75	38.125	44.875	62.125	49.375

Figure 3: Example spreadsheet you will recieve and what it should look like after you fill it out based on the example drawing in Figure 2. If done properly, cells of the same color will share the same values.