Tag Archives: cockpit enclosure

Shades of Canvas

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We bring Kim from Masterpieces in Canvas back to finish up a few more sewing projects.  We ran out of time and could not finish these two big projects last season.  Kim met us in the Norsand Boatyard where she worked with Matt to determine exactly what he wants before making a pattern.

She brings a huge roll of pattern material and custom designs each window covering.  Some windows get 2 patterns.  We are making sauleda covers for storage (they will be solid gray fabric that are not see through).  We are also making black phifertex window covers that will be our “everyday” window shades.  They will let in a little light, allow us to see outside, but will block 80% of the sun.

We also asked Kim to make us (2) side phifertex canvas sun shades for our cockpit enclousure.   These will zip on to the outside of our existing side panels and can be rolled up for storage when not in use.  So we can alternate between using the sun shade (phifertex) or the rain shade (sauleda/Isinglass) without having to change them out.

In the bottom photo, Kim is marking the snaps on the sauleda canvas window covers.  We will use these when we put the boat up for storage or when we are feeling particularly shy.  The yellow tape around the foward window is from a paint job that Matt was working on and will be removed.

And the final phifertex window covers.  We decided to go with two different grades.  The two side windows on both port and starboard are 90% opacity and the three forward windows are 80% opacity.  This will allow us to better see out the windows while the shades are on.

Sewing Projects By Us

In 2018, Matt and I made blue fender covers for our big round A4s and pencil type F4s.  See blog post dressing up our Fenders. 

Over the years the blue faded and frayed so it was time to replace them again.  Last season, March 2023 I replaced the A4 fender covers with black covers.  But that left the F4 (pencil) fenders ugly and blue.

So, it was time to replace them with beautiful black polar felt.  They should match better to our new gray color scheme and be soft on the boat.

New Line

We also purchased new line for the boat.  We bought 34m of a beautiful gray (with black/white flecks) in double braid heavy duty line for our main sheets, and 100m green mottled line with a dynema core for our spin halyard and reefing line.  While we were at it we replaced our red “oh $hit” line that we use to hold on while under way and bought 100m of 5mm dynema line for future projects.  Everything came from Nautilus Braids which provides the best customer service, quality lines, at reasonable pricess.  They custom made our lines for us!

By the way, there are no ropes on board a boat.  You will find lines, sheets, halyards, vangs, tricing lines, warps, whips, and jackstays, but not ropes.  

We will have Kim come back in early March to help us finish some really small projects:

  • Stern seat cushions over the line holders
  • (2) Line bags for our main sheets
  • (2) Recycling bags
  • (1) Remote wench holder
  • (2) Sets of 3 pockets for cockpit
  • (1) Table cover

Don’t worry, there still are a dozen other sewing projects for us to tackle with our Sailrite machine.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events. This blog post occured in mid-November.  We attack some beastly boat projects while on the hard at Norsand Boatyard.

New Canvas: Inside and Out

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New canvas!  We replaced all of our interior and exterior cushions when we purchased Sugar Shack in 2010.  Do you remember the horrid teal pleather that was on the boat when we bought it?  The shop in Turkey did a really great job replacing the cushions and covering them.  We replaced the interior cushions with a beautiful, light tan micro suede called Alcantera and the exterior cushions had a sturdy, stainproof, water resistant beige sunbrella. 

Fast forward to today…if you were to look at our cushions from afar you might wonder why we were replacing the fabric…Even I think they look pretty darn good from this shot.

But, when you look closely, the fabric has started pulling away at the seams especially around the bolsters.  Unfortunately, this is not fixable.  I know, I tried and it doesn’t hold as the fabric is too thin and worn to hold the thread and glue.

And some of the cushions have actually worn through the fabric on the sides.

Exterior Cushions

The exterior cockpit cushions are holding up a little better but they are stained and looking a little tired.  They are also retaining water (when it rains the cockpit gets wet) which takes ages to dry out.

Shopping for a Dressmaker

One of the first things that we did when we arrived in New Zealand (Nov.2022) was to look for canvas makers.  We knew this would be a huge job and so we wanted to get on the books early on.  We met with several companies and decided on Masterpieces in Canvas.  The owner, Kim, is very professional, has amazing creative ideas, great suggestions, and a reputation for stellar work.

The Pending Canvas Projects:

  • Replace fabric on interior Cushions (7 backs, 8 bottoms, 1 nav seat, 2 bench seats, 1 round seat)
  • Recover exterior cushions (3 long cockpit cushions, 2 helm seats)
  • New back bolster covers at helm seats
  • Dinghy Chaps / cover
  • Cockpit enclosure
  • Sail Bag Cover (North Sails will provide this)

We selected a new, hardier interior fabric that is a macro-suede in Ash (left photo).  For the exterior, we selected two types of a new (to us) fabric called Sauleda.  The main cushions and helm seats will be in light silver gray called Tandem Piedra.  The new dinghy chaps, sail bag, helm bolsters and cockpit enclosure will be in a darker gray called Tandem Grafito.

The macro-suede is water and stain resistant and can be scrubbed and cleaned.  The Sauleda is waterproof, stain proof and much stronger than Sunbrella.  It has more threads making it a sturdier fabric.

The Big Reveal:

The new cushions came in and boy oh boy are we excited.  They turned out so beautifully that we did not want to sit on them!  The color is perfect, the material is soft and luxurious, and the design is perfect.

Kim has great attention to detail which can be found in all the seams, curves, and design.  Yours truly (Christine) made the beautiful, buttery soft blanket in the bottom photo.

The bottom side even turned out really nice.  She used a beautiful black phifertex, with sturdy zippers and wood on the bottom (so your bottom doesn’t sink into the holes below)

The seat at our navigation table even came out super cool.  We bought a new chair and had Kim recover it to match the cushions.  This new chair is on a swivel so it turns around and will lift up so we can still access the storage underneath it.

Outside Canvas work

The vendor in Turkey did a great job providing us with large, cushy cushions.  All we needed to do was add a little more water proofing and new canvas.  They came out beautiful as well.

Cockpit Enclosure

Matt and I had made our rain and sun shades and they were very tired and did not completely enclose the cockpit so when it rained everything got wet.  Kim and Matt designed our new enclosure that has windows and is completely enclosed.  We will most likely only use the large back panel and the two side panels (not the corners) on a daily basis.

From the inside…excuse the mess but we are still under construction…

A New Dinghy and Chaps

Our amazing Avon 3.4 lasted over 22 years!  She was a spectacular dinghy and lasted way beyond expectations.  She had a deep “V” bottom, a false floor so we had a flat surface to stand on inside dinghy, tall transom, locker with hawes pipe and 3 pontoons.  But she had several slow leaks and we just could not keep up with them.  We thought about just replacing the pontoons because we loved this dinghy so much, but the cost was equivalent to a new dinghy.

Avon no longer makes small dinghies (they just make gigantic dinghies) so we could not even replace her with another one just like her.  In fact, we had a lot of problems finding a dinghy we liked.  We wanted a 3.6M dinghy, with a deep “V”, false bottom, tall transom (for our long shaft outboard), and hypalon pontoons.  But, New Zealand does not sell dinghies with hypalon pontoons because they are too expensive and they don’t sell.  So, we had to go with a pvc version which just are not as strong or sturdy.  What can you do? Just means the life span of this dinghy will be maybe 5-7 years tops.

We sell our beloved Sweetie along with our old 8hp Mercury outboard.

The gorgeous new outfit for Sweetie 2.0

And we get new chaps made for the new dinghy to protect the pontoons.  Sweetie 2.0.  The far left photo has shadows from the trees – the bow is actually perfect.  Kim added two beautiful pockets and the craftsmanship around each cut out is simply amazing (lower left photo).

Here is a photo of Kim and Roger (our sailmaker)

Events from this blog occurred between April-May 2023.  Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events. We replace all of our ceiling panels, ceiling lights and update the master bath in our last blog.