Kayak cover

[RangerTim]

A few weeks ago a neighbor was cleaning out her basement. She comes over with a bolt of goretex fabric - dark blue polyester on one side, membrane on the other. The bolt measured 6' long by about 10" in diameter. "Do you want this? I got it from someone who worked at a textile factory."

Ann had long wanted a cover for her Folbot Yukon that would accommodate the Balogh crosstube and lower mast section (allowing the sail to remain in place, bungeed to the foredeck). With such a cover the boat could be left in the sun, nearly ready to sail, without incurring extensive UV exposure. The gift of gobs of goretex was reason to break out the seldom-used sewing machine and give it a go.

The quantity of fabric allowed her to fold it over, with polyester top and bottom sandwiching two membrane layers. To allow for ease of installation, she sewed on "wings" to cover the crosstube, rather than tight-fitting pockets. She used velcro straps to gather the extra fabric around the tubes once the cover is on the boat. A double hem along the bottom creates a channel for shock cord, which holds the cover in place. She does remove the rudder before installing the cover.

I would love to have such a cover myself, but the prototype was hard enough to construct that Ann has no intention of making a second.

[DLee]

Wow that's really great, I've tried to do the same thing with just laying fabric over the top. I really doesn't work out so great that way, ha.

I think there may have been a typo in your original post... or I didn't understand your measurement. How much fabric did you get?

d

[RangerTim]

Turns out the bolt was 5 feet long, not six as I originally stated. The fabric was rolled around a 3 inch cardboard tube. Total diameter of rolled fabric and tube was ten inches. Enough for the boat cover, a cockpit cover, and some left over.

I suspect this was an early Goretex. Even doubled, eventually it will allow the passage of water in the heavy rain of a mid-Atlantic summer thunderstorm. Still, the cover does a great job blocking the sun.