Most of our boat projects involve protecting ourselves and our cruising home from water, sun, bugs, and other boats. It’s really that simple.  Big threats fit into one of these four buckets, and fabric can provide first line defense against the first three threats.

Buying custom made marine canvas will motivate you to learn to sew.  Its expensive. Fortunately for us, Dawn knows how to sew.  Since several projects on our to-do list involve fabric, we bought a sewing machine specifically made for boat projects.

I suspect most non-boaters have not heard of a SAILRITE sewing machine.

Its made for heavy fabric like canvas, Sunbrella or sailcloth.  In a pinch, we could use it to make boots, baseball mitts and and soccer balls. We could also use it as an anchor, because it weighs about 80 pounds.  If we stood it on its nose, we could use its flywheel as gyro stabilizer to keep the boat from rolling.

You get the idea.  

We also bought a very cool folding table for it that’s the same height as our dining table. When everything is all set up, the salon becomes a sewing project room.  Its quite a set up.  Lola likes it because she can watch and gets the couch to herself.

If you have any heavy duty sewing to do and aren’t familiar with Sailrite – check them out. They are a very cool American company.

Dawn’s first project was making new cushions for the front bench seat, followed by new cushions for the seats up on the flybridge.  Yes, these don’t protect us from any of those four big threats, but they do protect the teak benches from the sun – plus they’re comfy and look really nice.

Boat canvas done right can really dress up the boat, especially when the seamstress spends so much time and effort making sure that the stripes all line up.  Dawn vows that there will be no more striped fabric aboard.

Next up is finishing a storage bag (no stripes) for our folding bicycles.  These will stow up top on the boat deck and keep the sun and salt from fouling up the bikes when were not riding them around strange towns looking for groceries.

We’ve got a few other projects that will get underway when she retires next week!