Sewing Is Extremely Handy On A Boat

 

My husband is a collector of talents. One of the many wonderful skills he has amassed over the years is that of sewing. Where as I on the other hand struggle at mending a pair of pants.

At a young age Eben’s mother taught him and his brother to sew. His brother has gone on to create snowboarding apparel, and my wedding dress, and Eben has put his amazing talent to good use at prettifying our boat.

With our Sailrite LZ1 Eben has repaired torn sails, made mattress covers for all our beds (out of automotive material for better wear and longevity), redone all of our settee cushions, created our outdoor cockpit cushions (using a great new vinyl product made by Spradling), created a Lee cloth playpen, and made our Bimini and dodger.

In the past month he has attacked three other sewing projects, making wind scoops, bug nets for two of our main hatches, and covers for our propane tanks.

WINDSCOOPS

I think the hardest part about creating the wind scoops is that he had a very specific desire, he wanted to make them so they would allow wind in but keep other elements, like rain, out. This way we would be able to keep them on, and our hatches open, even when it rains, and avoid that stuffiness during a storm.
After a few trial and errors he got the design he wanted.
He created the scoops out of left over sail material we had onboard and used bendable posts, like tent-frame posts, to create the boning. On one side he made an arch out of the bendable posts, that attaches to the front corners of the hatch, and tapered that down to where the two opposite corners attach to the back hatch corners. This would’ve created a basic wind scoop.
In addition he added an inner panel of material that goes from the front two corners and raises about 3/4 of the way inside the arch to prevent most rain from flying in without restricting airflow. It was genius and works wonderfully.
Project Wind Scoops. Complete.

 

Eben hard at work

 

front view of wind scoops

 

BUG NETS

Next was the bug nets/window covers. Eben did the two main bedroom hatches. He measured out the hatch sizes (pretty easy, they are square) and cut the mosquito/nosee’em mesh to size with +1 inch on every side so it would cover the wooden hatch frames as well.

He then sewed a 1 inch tether strap over that extra 1 inch seam on every side to allow us to pull it taught over the hatches and give the netting that much extra support. He also added a 3 inch strap to one side, with Velcro on the end of the strap as well as a piece on the edging, so that we can roll up the net and Velcro it in a roll if we do not want it on.

Once the sewing was done he permanently fixed two corners of the net to one side of the hatch with stainless screws and installed stainless snaps to the other two corners so that we can clip or unclip and roll depending on wether we want to use it or not.

Project Mosquito Nets. Complete.

bye bye bugs

 

unclipped for a better view

 

rolled up when not in use

PROPANE TANK COVERS

He has already created two propane tank covers out of navy blue outdoor material that we found at a local shop (comparable to Sunbrella) at $15/yard, not cheap, but cheaper than Sunbrella.

Instead of explaining his every step in this project I will let you see his nice diagram, but would like to add that he ingeniously added an opening at the top, with a Velcro flap, for easy access to the tanks and to place the hose through, as well as adding a bungy cord around the bottom of the covers to synch it in tight to completely the clean look and not have them fly away.
Project Propane Covers. Complete.

 

With this kind of talent he has garnered himself a few jobs doing sail repair and redoing some boat cushions for fellow cruisers, but I remain his #1 fan.

 

Settees BEFORE

 

Settees AFTER

 

cute baby pic, but its actually to show the Cockpit Cushions

 

 

My playpen Lee Cloth