First canvas project

[bamabratsche]

Having exhausted every chapter of "This Old Boat" during the recent restoration except for electrical and plumbing (of which there are none on Fair Hope), I have now commandeered the sewing machine with the goal of having new cushions and a sailcover to match her new brown/tan color scheme by the end of the summer. Currently everything is good old Pacific Blue. Here's the first project--pretty cool, and it is nice not to have the VHF, water bottle, etc. flying across the cockpit on every tack.

[jbenagh]

Nice! My cockpit clutter has been bugging me as well; maybe you'll be my inspiration.

Jeff

[ariasis]

Very nicely done.

[Skeep]

I like the plastic crate down below for stowing the anchor and other items too! Never thought about that, but it is perfect for that little nook.

[tjr818]

That looks very nice, how is that attached to the bulkhead?

[ariasis]

Very nice.

[bamabratsche]

Hi folks, I attached it to the bulkhead using suction cups I found at McMaster-Carr (p/n 53535A25). They have a stud with 8-32 machine screw threads in the middle, so I put a #1 spur grommet in each corner of the fabric, stuck the suction cup studs through the grommets, and capped each one on the other side with plastic knobs with 8-32 female threads (McMaster-Carr p/n 6479K73). My goal was to avoid drilling any unnecessary holes for attachments.

This worked fine sitting at the dock, but once underway and things start banging around, the suction cups do not always hold on that well. Usually within an hour or so at least one corner has let go and has to be stuck back on, which is not that big a deal but still annoying. Another issue is that when I measured for the dimensions of the pouch, I forgot to take into account the height of the cockpit cushion, so the bottom of the pouch sort of gets squashed up against the forward edge of the cushion.

So, the Bama Bulkhead Pouch Mark II will be sized correctly, and will be incorporate these adhesive-backed snaps from Sailrite (http://www.sailrite.com/YKK-SNAD-Clear- ... -Base-Stud) on the bulkhead side. They are supposedly pretty strong, but also can allegedly be removed with a putty knife if needed. If they don't stay stuck I will just drill the holes for a real snap stud and be done with it, but it would be cool to have a solution that didn't involve doing that.

As far as other materials go, I got the fabric (Sunbrella and Phifertex mesh) and grommet hardware from Sailrite--so far they have lived up to their reputation for great customer service so no complaints there.

I'll update with the results of the Mark II experiments when they're done, but in the meantime here are a couple of other learning projects I've done: new tiller cover, outboard cover, and foredeck sail bag. Sailrite sells kits for most or all of these, but I thought I would learn more by doing them all from scratch on my own, which I think was probably true, especially for the foredeck bag. The angles are a little weird because I was trying to hide the fact that the main sailcover is still Pacific Blue, which looks ridiculous with everything else being brown. The goal is still to have a new sailcover and cockpit cushion covers by the end of the summer.

[Skeep]

Nicely done!

[SoCalFlorian]

Wow, you've been busy! They all look great. Thanks for listing the part numbers and sources - very helpful.

I met the Sailrite folks at the Annapolis Sailboat Show last year, and they were very nice. I didn't buy anything, but they still answered all of my questions and had helpful suggestions. Good people.
Belinda
s/v Florian
Robinhood 36
the-third-quarter.blogspot.com

[bamabratsche]

The dream lives on. Here's another cockpit storage pouch, this time sized to fit just below the cockpit seats (about 7" x 36"). The pockets are small enough that they are probably only going to be good for the winch handle, cell phones, maybe the VHF lying on its side, etc. However, the stick-on snap studs on the boat side seem to work pretty well--a test on a piece of plexiglass showed they stick well enough to pull a snap on and off repeatedly, but come off fairly cleanly with a little bit of work with a putty knife. The ones on the cloth side are installed normally with a special die.

[Skeep]

Bravo, well done!

[SoCalFlorian]

That looks excellent. Neat and tidy, and custom made to boot. Thanks so much for posting the close ups of the parts. I'll be looking into this for svFlorian. Great inspiration.

[bamabratsche]

More progress on the canvas front--first of all I did the final fit check on the in-progress sail cover today. I've been forgetting to take photos of the rest of the process, but after much measuring, cutting, and fiddling around I have gotten pretty much the way I want it. So today was just a final check with clamps before installing the fasteners and hemming the aft edge. The only thing I'm not really happy with is that there could be more taper towards the aft end so it wouldn't look so square, but I am not going to worry about it at this point. I guess it's better to have too much material back there than not enough in any case.



Also, here are the updated bulkhead pouches with the stick-on snaps rather than the suction cups. Yes, one is bigger than the other due to an unfortunate hem miscalculation, but I am going to tell myself that it just adds character.

[bamabratsche]

And it's finished! Here's a before and after with new tiller cover, outboard cover, foredeck bag, and mainsail cover:





And a couple of detail shots:







Now on to the cushions...

[Skeep]

If you have the patterns and you'd like to take orders, I'm ready!