Boat Canvas

Boat canvas on a sailboat offers several benefits. It provides protection from the elements, it provides privacy, and boat canvas can make the sailboat more pleasing to the eye. Boat canvas enclosures around the cockpit of any boat, sail or power, makes the cockpit another protected room. Boat canvas is versatile. It can be taken down and stored out of the way if you don’t need it or you can leave it up all year long.

Boat canvas can be created especially for your boat, like a dodger that needs to be an exact fit or it can be ordered through the mail already made to certain specifications, like a sail cover, that would then fit over your sail.

Boats come in all shapes and sizes and the marine boat canvas fabricator must make the canvas work fit exactly for that boat.This tells the boat owner that the boat canvas work he wants and needs is not going to be cheap and it is not going to arrive quickly. Boat canvas fabrication is an art and when it finally arrives and it fits like a glove, he is going to be very happy.

There are companies in the business of boat canvas fabrication that offer classes, videos, equipment and support for anyone who wishes to make his own canvas covers, cushions and even sails. MC: How to Fabricate with H2UBE is a marine canvas fabrication video that is informative and helpful to the beginner. Anyone can learn to make boat canvas projects for a boat if they will take the time. The fabricator should have some knowledge of how boats are affected by wind and weather because the fabricator needs to create the boat canvas so it will not interfere with the workings of the boat. He creates the boat canvas applications to compliment the dynamics of the boat and uses material that will withstand the wind, rains and even salt from the sea whether the sailboat is sitting at the dock or sailing to its next destination.

The Big Book of Boat Canvas: A Complete Guide to Fabric Work on Boats has many projects that help to make life easier on board. Here is a picture of the new cushions our daughter made for us. She used a sewing machine we lovingly call “Baby Blue”. She is a LZS-1Ulrafeed. That means she has a mechanical walking presser foot that moves forward and backward so that you can sew up to 10 layers of fabric at one time, without constant adjustment and without puckers in the material. You can even sew layers of leather! It is an awesome machine. We made our own bimini top but we paid to have our dodger made. We were in Canada at the time and our dodger was made by Quinite Canvas.

Fabrics that are used when making boat canvas applications are acrylic. Cotton, nylon, polyester blends just don’t last long out in the sun, rain, and wind. For the expense of the fabrication, you need the fabric to last. Some of the fabrics are Dickson, Sea Mark, Stamoid, Sun N Shade and the most famous, Sunbrella. Each if these come in tons of different colors, textures, and weights depending on what job they are needed to do. Light colors disintegrate faster out in the weather than darker colors. In a tropical environment the sun is the hardest element on the fabric. The UV rays weaken the fibers so the boat canvas looses it’s strengthen in 3-5 years. (Cotton will last a mere 6 months.)

Darker colors like Pacific Blue, the darker greens and black can last up to 20 years in all but the most tropical conditions. Even the thread that the boat canvas fabricator uses should be acrylic (polyester) for greater resistance to the UV rays. The largest size thread should be used to last the longest. Many authorities say to stitch the fabric on both sides for added time out in the weather. This can be accomplished by machines that sew with 2 needles and are made with this purpose in mind. Otherwise two lines of stitching are needed.

When you pick a fabric for your boat canvas application, consider what you want the boat canvas to do. For example, if you want a full enclosure around your cockpit, make sure the fabric has breatheability and the enclosure is not air tight. If it is completely air tight, mold and mildew can be a problem. A full enclosure needs to have screens you can use in windows strategically put in the boat canvas or at the least plastic vents to allow for some air flow. If you are making a bimini, which is a top for on your boat for shade, a more durable fabric that is waterproof would be used. It doesn’t need to breath but it does need to keep the water off of your head.The fabrics we talked about above come in different weights and strengths for this purpose. Be sure to discuss this with your fabricator so you can make the best choices.

Sunbrella Supreme is a fabric that has a soft layer added to one side that can even be a different color if you want. The soft layer keeps the fabric from scratching surfaces such as varnished areas and the added soft layer makes the fabric almost waterproof. It also has a 5 yr warranty.

These are just some of the suggestions and ideas about boat canvas. I hope I have given you reason to do you own research about boat canvas fabrication. I enjoy and appreciate the boat canvas we have on our sailboat. Now that we have a sewing machine we plan to enclose our cockpit and make our own sails. I have seen boats with winch handles covered with canvas, hand rails that have been varnished covered with boat canvas and hatches covered to keep the sun out from down below and to protect the hatch plexiglass from the sun also. I plan to cover everything on our sailboat. I like the way the boat canvas looks on our sailboat and it protects my investment. In my opinion, that makes all the effort, time and money worth it.