Old Boat New Cover
/My 34 year old boat wanted a new outfit so I decided I’d make her one.
I’ve always used a full mooring cover on the boat, but it’s getting pretty worn and it’s a bitch to get some of the snaps to snap, so I figured I’d make a new bow and cabin cover to make it easier for me to take it on and off when I want to head out. Now that the boat is right in front of my house, I’m taking it out more often, and a new cover system would make things just a little easier. Snap studs were already in place on the boat (I lost the original bow and cabin covers in the great garage fire of 2017), so I just needed to get some snap sockets for the cover. And some canvas!
I used the following to make my covers (all purchased from Sailrite):
Top Gun Marine Canvas Fabric (60” wide) in Caribbean Blue
V-69 UV Thread in Pacific Blue
Shelter-Rite Vinyl Fabric (for chafe protection)
DOT Stainless Steel cloth snap buttons & sockets
Top Notch 1” Bias Binding in Caribbean Blue
Scribe-All Marking Pencil (after I made marks with a Sharpie that I later realized would not be hidden…ugh…)
I took measurements at various points to figure out how much fabric I would need. I measured at the yellow arrows for the cabin cover and the green arrows for the bow cover. You’ll have to pardon the quality of the image I worked off of…it’s a 1987 boat in case you couldn’t tell from this gem from the owner’s manual.
I thought I would sew the basic panels together and then pattern it on the boat. The fabric was 60” wide so I cut 3 panels and joined them together using a semi-flat felled seam (the seams run across the beam of the boat from port to starboard). I took care to ensure that I pointed the seams “down” in the direction rain would go so that water would run over the seam and not into the seam. Once I had the panels together, I brought it out to the boat to pattern it out.
In my head, this wasn’t going to be too difficult - just use some strapping tape and seam stick basting tape around the perimeter, stick the fabric to it, draw some lines and cut it out. However, when I attempted to do this, it was a little windy, I was flying solo, and the seam stick just wasn’t sticking to my fabric. I used all the clamps I have in my workshop to hold things down and I just could not get the whole thing laid out tight, despite doing some serious gymnastics around the shore station. I am shocked I didn’t fall in the drink. I was able to get the area around the windshield marked pretty well, so as I sat there, trying not to fall in the lake, I figured I’d have to take a more creative approach.
I decided that I would go ahead and cut the fabric around the windshield area first, start adding in the chafe protection, set the snaps right on the boat, and then use the snaps to hold basically half of the cover in place so I could pattern out the rest of it.
I had purchased a Pres-n-Snap tool because this was going to involve a lot of snaps and I’ll be damned if I was going to sit there with a hammer and a manual die to set them. Plus, the snaps are stainless, so I figured I’d need the big tool because they’re harder to set. I was on the struggle bus with the first snap…I could not get it to set. I kept thinking there must be some secret trick, but after fiddling around with it and adjusting the screw on it, I was able to finally get it to start to set the snap…but it was slow going. I figured I was just not strong enough to clamp this thing together, but I was bound and determined to not wait for a boy to do it for me. I enlisted one of the Brady Littles as my helper so that I could ensure I was getting the cover set properly, and this was definitely a lot easier with another set of hands!
It was getting hot, so my helper and I called a union break and took the boat out to go for a swim. For whatever reason, after we returned, the first few snaps snapped right in. What the hell? I still can’t figure out what on earth I was doing differently each time, but I pressed on, and I got the snaps around the windshield so I could pattern out the stern while my helper was determined to catch fish off the pier with an aquarium net.
I decided that my cover would go under the rails at the transom, so that meant I needed to make some cutouts. To pattern this out, I had it snapped along the windshield and pulled it tight to the transom, running under the rail. I made some basic relief cuts to be able to get the fabric around the rail posts. I marked the snap locations and removed the cover to take it back to the garage.
Since I would be using 1” binding around the entire perimeter, I marked 1” below the center of each snap as my cut line. In retrospect, I probably should have gone 1-1/4” because I had a hard time getting my walking foot around the snaps when I bound the edges, but whatever, I made it work. I trimmed up the edges and set more of the snaps, and took it back out to the boat to snap it down so I could make proper marks for the cutouts.
At this point, I realized that I had some inaccurate marks on some of the snaps. Oops. I got it snapped to the windshield and the transom and re-marked where I needed the snaps to be on the sides. Unfortunately, I had already set some of the snaps on one side, so the final product now has two snaps close to each other. Again, WHATEVER. The point is that they work.
After I got the cutouts marked and cut, I took it back to the garage and bound the edges. I used my hot knife to heat seal the raw edges on the binding.
Next order of business was to create the bow cover. I followed the same method I used for the cabin cover.
The bow cover was much smaller and much easier to do since there wasn’t really three-dimensional shape to account for; it essentially lays flat across the bow. The only thing I had to account for was that it snaps under the center windshield so I had to make a couple small cutouts for that lip to get under the windshield, and then a small cutout for the windshield wiper.
Having learned lessons on the cabin cover about not having snap placement 100% right before I set the snaps, this took several trips between the boat and the sewing machine. I started with the widest part that runs along the windshield and marked where the center snap would go, then worked my way to both sides. Once I was back in the garage, I used a ruler and played connect the dots between the snaps using a scribe-all pencil. I then marked 1-1/4” below that line to be my cut line.
I made my cuts, then sewed in the chafe protection along the raw edge and set the snaps. On the boat, I snapped it in and started to mark along one of the sides leading to the bow, but decided I should instead pull it taut straight to the bow and do the sides last. So, I crouched on the anchor locker right at the point of the bow, pulled the cover tight, and got the bow snaps marked…without falling in the water. Shew! Followed this same process for the remaining sides, doing one side at a time, checking the fit as I went. Three snaps on one side were a little off, which resulted in some waviness when it’s all snapped down, but overall not too shabby for a first attempt at this.
I’m glad I did it this way because had I just tried to mark it, I would have been way off since I just couldn’t get it held down tight without the snaps. So, yes, it took basically two entire days of work to get through, but in the end, I got a pretty good fit that I’m happy with, and it’s tight enough that I decided I would not need to add a tent pole/vent to either cover.
However, wouldn’t you know it, on the very last snap I set, I got a little excited and fucked it up by squeezing too hard on the pres-n-snap tool with the die pinching the actual socket of the snap. So, now I know how to remove a snap that’s already been set (you have to drill out the rivet).
The big test came this week when a derecho rolled through at 2am one night. I went out to check the covers that morning and I’m happy to report there was no water pooled up anywhere!
