Anyone else have canvas on her boat? Yes?! I do. Lots of it. Big and small. Canvas is important protective covering for your boat. It saves you money and time by protecting teak from the sun, keeping dirt out of your winches and instruments, and keeping you cool at anchor.

Can you guess how many different canvas items you have on board? Quick without looking. I counted at least 20 unique items with some items having multiples in use at any given time on our Morgan sailboat, Magnolia.

That doesn’t count functional and decorative fabrics below. And I have plans to add more canvas on my growing sewing projects list!

If you are like me, a Seamless Sailor, you don’t want to rely on a canvas maker for all your canvas projects.  We are self-reliant sailors, right? We can figure out how to make much of what we need and for less money.  You want your canvas to last for maximum use and value.  But whether you sew or not, we all need to take care of our canvas so it can provide long service for our boat and it’s equipment.

How many unique canvas items can you find on Magnolia’s stern?

Here are five tips that I’ve gleaned from my research and experience to keep your canvas serving you and your boat well for several years.

1. Wash, rinse, repeat

These three words from the shampoo bottle apply to acrylic Sunbrella canvas too.

• When you see dirty canvas, about once a month or at a minimum once a season, wash the item or hose it down with cool water. Removing dirt can reduce the chance of mildew.  Use a lot of water if you have it available.  Use a bathtub or large bucket or sink to soak any smaller removable items.
• It can take awhile to soak Sunbrella that is in good condition.  That’s ok.  It’s supposed to be waterproof!  Water should bead on Sunbrella.
• Don’t use detergent or harsh cleaners which could strip the waterproofing finish.  Use a light cleaner like Woolite or other hand washing or dish washing solution. The manufacturer says you can use diluted bleach on Sunbrella.
• Avoid any rough rubbing or stiff brushes on stains.  Be gentle. Use a sponge or soft brush.
• Air dry. No machine drying needed. The goal is to keep the impregnated waterproofing protection on.

(Note:  I’ve focused on Sunbrella since it is seems to be the most popular outdoor canvas.)

2. Bimini care

If you have a bimini or enclosure it is likely the most expensive canvas item aboard.

• Hose it down when you have plenty of water to spare, as above – monthly if possible, and before you store it for the season if you are putting your boat up.  Be sure it dries completely before you store it.
• When you reinstall a bimini adjust it so it fits tight and water will run off.
• Try and remove environmental dirt and bird droppings as often as possible.
• Lubricate zippers as needed or once a season to keep them running smoothly. We use Boeshield T-9 on Magnolia. Try not to force zippers.

2a. Eisenglass

The “sunroom” on Magnolia

While we’re talking about biminis…take extra care of your soft plastic dodger and side enclosure curtains. This plastic is coated with UV protectants that we need to preserve to extent its life.

• In my research I’m finding a wide array of advice from use nothing but vinegar and water and a microfiber cloth after rinsing off salt and dirt to recommendations to use expensive products recommended by Strataglass, like IMAR.  We are using Plexus on our old plastic curtains and like the results. We may reevaluate that for our next enclosure.
• Again no detergents nor sunscreen from your hands.
• Store the curtains flat between sheets or felt for longer term storage or you can roll them, but never fold.
• I see some boats have snap on covers for their dodger and side curtains.  A great idea to reduce sun exposure.

Most important is that this plastic is expensive, so treat it with TLC on a regular basis.

3. Waterproofing

Don’t forget to condition aging or leaking biminis with a waterproofing solution. If water isn’t beading or pooling on the canvas, it’s time.

Jan Irons of Commuter Cruiser says that dirt may be the culprit of leaking biminis.  If there is dirt on the fabric when you apply waterproofing you may not get a good adhesion.  The waterproofing washes off in the next rain. What a waste of time and money.  Be sure to hose the bimini down and let it dry before applying a waterproofing solution.

Again my research is that there are all level of waterproofing solutions and varying admiration of each.  Some swear by less expensive Scotchguard.  We use Marykate and have found that it worked well, but our current bimini is of unknown age. With newer fabric I’d go with what Sunbrella recommends – 303 Fabric Guard.  Practical Sailor magazine (June 2004) testing agrees.

4. Stains

Get them off as fast as reasonably possible with as minimal abrasion as possible.  Check out the stain removal chart on the Sunbrella website for advice on specific stain types.

There are homemade solutions with products aboard to try before spending money on stain removers creating one more bottle to store.

5. Keep up with repairs

If you have an area that rubs against something hard like my aging companionway cover does over the ring for the hatch board lock, add chafe guard such as Shelter-Rite (available from Sailrite) before it becomes a hole that is completely chafed through.  Or add patches on both sides with additional Sunbrella.

Trim any seams that show fraying.  Better yet use an electric hot knife or soldering tool to seal any raw edges that appear.

Secret tip:  When I get out my hot knife I use it on a safe surface like a marble cutting board slab. My safety surface on the boat is a square of plywood. I tell my husband that it is on so he doesn’t come up and surprise me while I’m using it.  I also say my mantra “Fear the Tool!” to remind myself to use it safely every time.  I don’t even want to think about getting burned by it.

Parts to replace old shock cord on a hatch cover. No sewing machine needed!

A word about the sun…

We ask a lot of canvas and the thread that holds our projects together to protect us from the  one thing that degrades it the most – the sun.

You will likely find that the thread is the first to go.  Use high quality UV resistant thread for your  repairs and projects.  Teflon thread is very expensive, but will be well worth it for major projects.  Otherwise use as heavy a Dacron polyester UV  resistant thread your machine can handle with the right size needle.

And I’ve decided to forgo any decorative  topstitching in contrasting colors for outdoor items. They look ratty when the  topstitching deteriorates making more repairs to keep up with. (Did you see the  ratty topstitching on the grill cover in the earlier picture?)

With these tips and the following resources, you should have a good base of information to help keep your canvas in working order for several years.

Have other valuable canvas care tips?

Feel free to leave a comment on the
Seamless Sailor blog: www.seamlesssailor.com
or email kathy@forcruisers.com.

The Seamless Sailor

A Seamless Sailor takes pride in being self-sufficient when it comes to making canvas or other soft goods for function or design on her (or his) boat.

There are lots of pre-made items on the market and many excellent custom canvas shops. But having custom items made can be expensive and buying items can be a challenge if you can’t find exactly what you want, the color, or the size for which you are looking.

The Seamless Sailor blog is a place to gather information, and share ideas and resources with other cruisers.  Check it out at www.seamlesssailor.com.

About  Annette Baker

Annette and her husband, Anthony, caught the sailing bug in 2009 after sailing with Suzanne and Ty Giesemann on S/V Liberty. (Suzanne is an author of several books, including It’s Your Boat Too.)

Following ASA sailing lessons from the Pentagon Sailing Club and Sistership in Tortola, BVI and help from wonderful sailing friends, they bought their 1990 44′ Morgan, Magnolia, in 2010.

They currently sail the Chesapeake Bay as weekend cruisers, but plan to head south in fall 2013. They would love to hear from other “Class of 2013” first-time cruisers.

Read also on this website

• Plan ahead to make lemonade from lemons, by Jan Irons
• Resources on Boat Maintenance
• Resources on Laundry & Cleaning

From watching dolphins leaping at the bow, seeking companionship from a banking shearwater during lonely ocean watchers or flushing hundreds of tiny sparkling plankton down the loo(!), sailors are overwhelmingly in tune with the natural world.

Like our fellow amphibians, we have adapted to life on land and in the water, just with a few more contraptions to keep us afloat! Sails power us, wind turbines swish, solar panels bristle and wake turbines spin, providing green energy for our lights, laptops, fridges or if you’ve a wooden boat like us, bilge pumps!

It is this usage of alternative energy and awareness of its consumption, down to the last amp, that holds us apart from many of our land-dwelling counterparts. Just as a gecko effortlessly merges with its surrounding, so the sailor can be seen collecting rain water, conserving water, sourcing locally and eating seasonally; it is as natural to her as living in a box the size of most people’s garden shed.

Red-footed booby on the bowsprit, Pacific

Blue Whale, Pacific Ocean

We live a privileged life in some of the most remote and wild places on earth. Tiny, shaken feather-balls seek shelter with us on their incredible migrations; flying fish screech onto our decks; a blue whale, one of the least known and largest animals ever to grace our planet, surfaces at our ‘front door’.

We are immersed in the lives of animals that others can only dream of.

But we mustn’t get complacent.

It’s easy to underestimate the impact of jettisoning a piece of rope, of the gurgle of the ‘iron top sail’ or that of anti-foul paint. The natural world, especially the vast ocean, can appear so limitless, bountiful and forgiving. It can be, but at the moment humanity is pushing Lovelock’s Gaia Theory to the limit. The repetitive death knells of: overfishing, pollution, over-population, coral bleaching and climate change hammer remorselessly at our planet, our life support system.

South American sealions

In our unique positions sleeping within a few centimetres of a passing hammer-head shark or giant squid, we can lead the way. We are the Queens of our mini floating worlds, regulating inputs and outputs, far and above that which a land-lover could dream to achieve.

Together we can reconnect our blue-green umbilical cord and ensure that the passion and inspiration ignited by our magical world is shared with others and serves to conserve our wild home forever.

I have always been transfixed by the natural world. Whether perched on a branch watching the canopy commotion as a bird of prey soars through or waiting under the roof of a million stars for whiskered bats to emerge from their roost. But it was not until nearly four years ago when we set sail that I started to meet and understand the other 70% of our planet.

Since then we have been trying to work out how to leave as tiny a blue print as possible. I find it challenging and extremely satisfying. I’m sure many of you will be following similar principles and I would love to hear more ideas. Because I believe together we CAN make a difference, can ENJOY the ‘greening’ process and most of all the wildlife and wild places we’re supporting.

“There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience”.
~French Proverb

Below are some of the things we do to sustain as blue-green a life as possible:

• Buy products with as little packaging as possible.
  

  Home Made Preserves, Chile

  I have an allergy to plastic bags (!) and carry rucksacks and egg boxes for provisioning. We preserve our own fruit, meat and veg to cut back on cans.

• Reuse, recycle and sort waste. I dig organic waste into a hole on land or jettison it at sea when on passage. We believe that if waste comes from the land it should go back there if at all possible.
• We conducted a rubbish experiment, hoarding all our no non-organic waste for 10 months. This included stuffing five pillows with all our old bits of old rope ends, thread and material. It’s amazing how focused one becomes on packaging, when you know you have to stare at it for another 10 months! It also becomes weirdly therapeutic…
  

  10 Month Rubbish Experiment, Chile

• We buy local and seasonal food. We consider how products are made and how they reached the shelves. This can on occasion hemorrhage decisions, but most of the time it’s liberating and suits my controlling nature!
• We don’t eat fish or seafood unless there is evidence that stocks are healthy. If you haven’t time to research the topic read, The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat,by Charles Clover, it’s a fantastic piece of investigative journalism. Unfortunately, a bustling fish market is not necessary the sign of a thriving fishery. Blue-finned tuna, Atlantic cod, Atlantic salmon, shark, marlin, monk fish, shrimps, prawns, lobster and swordfish are amongst the many imperiled species.See:
  www.fishonline.org
  www.fishwatch.gov
  www.greenpeace.org.uk/oceans/what-you-can-do/better-buys-what-fish-can-I-eat

• Cleaning:
  

  Soapnuts in organic cotton bag

  I use Ecover which can be found in the UK, Canary Islands, USA etc. and Seventh Generation which I found in St. Maarten, or better still vinegar and lemon (to cut back on packaging), also organic soap and shampoo (I’ve found organic olive-based products in the French Caribbean).

  Soapnuts are little gems for laundry. They’re totally organic, not the rightest of results, but the fish are happier! Friends know to bring these beauties with them when they visit, although you need such tiny amounts, they last for ages.

• I use a ‘moon cup’ during menstruation, so nothing’s thrown in the bin and it’s very cost effective. We haven’t had children yet, but I would love to hear from parents who’ve used cloth nappies.
• We’ve tried various anti-foul alternative treatments such as chili in paint, but with the fear of ship worm ever stalking us, I’m afraid we still use hard anti-foul paint. I’m not an expert on anti-fouling and would love to hear if anyone has found ‘greener’ alternatives. This is the bane of our wooden boat life. We collect the hard paint debris as best as we can when re-painting the hull, but no doubt this highly toxic substance gets into the environment and into us.
• Fuel: we use the engine as little as possible, equating it to CO₂, stinking fumes and noise. Some of our most treasured days at sea have been sitting becalmed with our toes being pecked by seabirds!
  

  Westland Petrel, becalmed, Pacific

• We mend and re-use everything: when lowering the floor in our galley, we re-used all the wood and nails. We are very careful in selecting wood, using, for example, teak grown in agricultural plantations in Trinidad. I’d rather see a tree in a rainforest heaving with wildlife than dead on our boat.
• We avoid petroleum-based products where possible using, for example, linseed oil and Varnol (pine tree resin-based product) on the exterior wood. No product is perfect: e.g. linseed oil is often produced through intensive agriculture, so it’s often a case of choosing the best of a bad bunch.

I look forward to hearing your ideas!

The 5000 Mile Project On 27 July 2012, Katharine and her husband, David, will start running the length of South America, over 5000 miles, the equivalent of 200 marathons, unsupported, in a year. Tortel, Chile Their goals are to: Raise money to buy and conserve threatened habitats in South America. Connect people to the communities and wildlife they meet and examine how, through our actions, we are connected. Inspire environmental action; to prove that with small steps we can tackle seemingly insurmountable challenges; it’s not too late to protect the world’s remaining unspoilt ecosystems, but time is running out. If you would like to sponsor their expedition or donate to their wildlife charities, please: Contact Katharine at landy@listalight.co.uk And visit www.5000mileproject.org and www.facebook.com/5000mileproject

About Katharine Lowrie

Katharine Lowrie surveying in Reloncavi, Chile

Katharine is an ecologist and currently lives with her husband David in Uruguay on their 77-year-old wooden gaff-ketch.

They surveyed the breeding seabirds of the Eastern Caribbean between 2009 and 2010 and recently published, The Seabird Breeding Atlas of the Lesser Antilles, with Environmental Protection In the Caribbean (EPIC), available from Create Space and Amazon.com.

After leaving the Caribbean, they sailed to the Galapagos, Easter Island and Chile where they lived for nearly a year, including sailing south through the Patagonian canals and the Beagle Channel. They then sailed to the Falklands and Uruguay — experiencing some of the worst weather of their entire journey! (www.listalight.co.uk).

Read also on this website

•  Katharine Lowrie sets sail to protect wildlife, by Katharine Lowrie
• Fear and Reward, by Katharine Lowrie
• What to do with all that trash, by Devi Sharp

More information (external links)

• Lovelock’s Gaia Theory: Model and Metaphor for the 21st Century:
• The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat,by Charles Clover
• The buyer’s guide to sustainable seafood (Marine Conservation Society, UK)
• Fish Watch: US Seafood Facts
• Sustainable seafood: what fish can I eat? (Greenpeace website)
• Ecover (Ecological cleaning products)
• Seventh Generation (Green cleaning products)
• 1001 Uses of White Distilled Vinegar
• Lemons, a natural household cleaner
• Using Soapnut shells for your laundry
• ‘Moon cup’ (Sanitary protection)

How do you leave a ‘small blue print’?

Let us know.

Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.