Marine canopies

One of the best investments I have ever made was having a marine canvas cover designed for the centre cockpit on my 44ft Gulfstar yacht Aardvark.

I have sailed for years on other boats where there was no protection. On long journeys this meant getting sunburnt by day, saturated by green water and then left shivering by night, usually in a blustery southeasterly. So I have to say, I’m thoroughly sold on well-designed dodgers or marine bimini covers with clears. And not just for comfort but for safety at sea reasons.

When it came to replacing Aardvark's centre cockpit marine cover and clears I didn’t hesitate on who to choose. For this exercise I undertook the nine-hour sail from Airlie Beach to Mackay to see Tropicoast Canvas and Shades director Tony Peacock.

In the boatie world word-of-mouth is everything and Tony had been recommended by a number of friends in the marine industry. He was to my mind the obvious choice, with 21 years experience in the custom design, fabrication and installation of all types of boat canvas covers, dodgers, sail bags, winch covers, boat interiors, mattresses and lounge cushions.

LESSON LEARNT
The return trip from Mackay to Airlie Beach again proved just how important these covers are when it comes to safety at sea and comfort.

I have to admit now I made a bad judgment call and continued sailing straight into a large monsoonal trough. It was night and in a matter of hours more than 100mm was reportedly dumped on the area from above.

The wind veered and varied between 5 and 35kts as we motored on through a series of fronts, which had combined to make one large storm. But the cockpit remained dry as did I and all my navigation equipment.

While getting caught out is not a recommended or enjoyable practice, I know Aardvark's old canopy and clears have previously survived a tempest with reported wind speeds of up to 67kts. I believe the new one will prove to be even hardier.  After all, it survived cyclone Ului back in March unscathed.

FITTING A NEW CANOPY
With Tony Peacock from Tropicoast Canvas and Shades (pictured).

1. With bimini tops and dodgers, Tony personally chooses to use acrylic canvas because he says he has found it lasts a bit longer. However, if you are putting on a white or a light grey canopy then Tony recommends the vinyl top because the lighter-coloured acrylic canvas can stain.

2. Measuring up for a new canopy takes time. First Tony goes out to the boat and measures up the length of the frame and checks how it has been shaped.

3. He works out how much material he needs then cuts the rough sizes.

4. If Tony has removed the frame from the boat and taken it to the workshop, he will mark it out there. Otherwise, he makes a series of trips back to the boat and gets it marked off on the boat.

5. Tony never uses an old pattern. Different materials react differently as they age. “Some shrink, some stretch,” he says. “I do know people who use patterns, but the chances of things fitting properly and looking good are next to none.”

6. When making canopy tops, Tony always uses zips rather than sleeves that must then be slid over the alloy of stainless steel support poles. “If you have zips, it makes life so much easier than trying to get a frame off and on,” said Tony. “Even if people come in and just want a job re-stitched and it hasn’t got zips, I will unpick it on the frame and put zips on it. It is more worthwhile to pay to have a couple of zips put in than to pay for the labour to take the whole frame apart.”

7. Once the stitching in a canopy starts to go. It’s time to buy a new canopy. As Tony explains when the stitching is busting in one place “you can run your finger along and the rest will let go anyway”.

8. “The machine I use would be 40 to 50 years-old,” said Tony. “But it is like an old car. There are three moving parts and if anything breaks I can fix it. Any workshop will tell you that you can’t afford to have downtime with machines.”

9. Cyclone Hamish, which passed by Mackay last year, was a test for many boats in the marina. Once the Weather Bureau confirmed the cyclone was not a threat as a direct hit, many people like me chose to leave their canopies up. As you can see from this photo conditions were still extreme with water breaking over the marina retaining wall and a virtual waterfall pouring into the marina.

10. Tony said he had been pleasantly surprised by the number of canopies that stood up to the wild conditions of Cyclone Hamish. “The cyclone surprised me. I thought I was going to come back to a heap of repair work and the stuff actually all stood up,” he says. “We recommend to people if there is a cyclone coming take the canopy down. But it is obviously a lot stronger than what we give it credit for.”

11. How long clears last depends on how people look after them. It’s the same theory as looking after a new paint job on your hull — it’s all about maintenance. And one of the worst things you can do is touch clears when you have sunscreen on your hands. The problem says Tony is “sunscreen is like an etch primer on clears”. “You can try and buff it out but it will never ever come out,” he points out.

12. For cleaning clears Tony recommends Vuplex -- I use it on Aardvark. You simply spray it on and wipe it off with a nice soft cloth. The result is clear 360-degree vision from the cockpit. Strata Glass also makes its own cleaner. If you can’t get your hands on Vuplex then Tony recommends using a mild detergent. “So long as they don’t have chlorines or bleaches in them,” he says. “The biggest thing, if you use soap, is to wash it off with freshwater when you are finished. With clears, give them a buff with a toweling rag to get off all the watermarks.”

13. Here’s another handy tip. Make sure when you roll down the clears that you double clip the ties. If left free hanging, the movement of the boat will cause the dome to slide across the clears and cause a scuff mark.

14. Clears on another vessel where the ties have been left hanging.

15. Tony’s preferred product is called Ultra Clear. But he says for people who are willing to spend the extra dollars they can use “the top of the range which is Strata Glass”. I took Tony’s advice for Aardvark and used Ultra Clear. The centre cockpit has full headroom, so regardless of whether it is a torrential downpour, a hot summer’s day or a mixture of both, the cockpit is always comfortable.

16. Enjoying the tropical islands around the Whitsundays is made far more pleasant when you can sit in comfort in a covered cockpit protected from the harsh rays of the sun.