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Death and taxes may be certain, but for those who own boats, so is canvas damage. For many marine fabricators, the industry is becoming increasingly complex due to computerized patterning software, innovative high-tech materials and tools, and advanced methods for accomplishing just about anything. But most shops still have a hand in a part of the business that never really changes much: canvas repair.
Canvas may need repairing for a lot of reasons, and one of the most common is UV exposure, says Thom Hefner, co-owner with Amanda Warren of Yacht Canvas Inc., in Annapolis, Md. “The other major issue is usually abrasion, where people are touching the canvas or scraping it where it wasn’t anticipated or it was not reinforced.”
The sun can degrade thread as well as canvas, says Hefner, but thread often fails because it “isn’t what it should be. People come in for a full restitch and the thread is not PTFE and it’s burned out, but the fabric is good. Sometimes that can’t be helped when people cut corners or use cheaper materials.”
Image: Yacht Canvas Inc.
Different approaches to repairs
To a casual observer, it may not seem that something as simple as a repair could differentiate one fabricator from another, but that’s not always true.
Take Rick Berkey, owner of Rick’s Custom Marine Canvas and Sail Repair in Cornelius, N.C., on the south end of Lake Norman. Berkey estimates that canvas repairs represent about 20% of his business. He says he’s the last of the fabricators on the lake who go out to customers’ boats on the water. “Because we boat year-round here, there’s not a lot of people who have trailers,” says Berkey. “If someone has a 28-foot boat and they want a cover made, you have to go to the boat.”
He says most fabricators don’t want the hassle of going to the boat because working at a marina requires insurance and supplement certificates. Also, he says, “It can be a big waste of time because of the traffic around here. You can spend more time trying to get to the boat than actually doing the work.
“But time is money,” Berkey says, pointing out the upside. “The clock starts ticking when you leave the shop, and then you sit on the highway for 20 or 30 minutes. So fabricators who don’t go to the boats have to supplement their workload with patio furniture and upholstery. But we do only canvas.”
Repair or replace?
Counseling clients on whether to repair or replace canvas is a big part of a fabricator’s job. For Warren, a key to customer service is walking customers through the repair process so they know what their options are and what those options might cost.
“If someone brings in a bimini that’s looking pretty worn, a very popular thing to say is ‘I just want to get one more season out of it,’” she explains. “But if something is dry-rotted and has ripped, we tell them we can patch this tear, but we’ll be poking thousands of needle holes in it—and when we tension it back on, it
might just rip again.
“When time and materials start getting to a third or half of a new one, I have to ask if they are sure that’s something they want to do,” says Warren.
On the other hand, if a repair is possible and makes economic sense, boat owners are often grateful for the option, says Berkey. “They may start with the mindset that they have to replace, but the first thing we do is evaluate the health of the fabric. If
the fabric is not healthy, there is no sense in doing the repair. But if the fabric can be repaired and they want to go that route, you’ll hear a big sigh of relief.”
“We try to be very realistic with people and try to help people out,” says Greg Keeler, owner of Oyster Creek Canvas in Bellingham, Wash., and a fabricator for more than 25 years. “Sometimes they may not be super happy when you say something is too far gone to be repaired. But after we explain the situation, they usually understand, and sometimes we end up making something new. We could put something on the table and try to fix it, but if it’s still going to be kind of crummy after we spend hours on it, it’s probably not worth the effort.”
The hardest repairs
Keeler doesn’t hesitate when asked what kind of repairs are the most difficult.
“One-piece dodgers,” he says. “Any fabricator reading this will understand. They are really difficult to repair. A lot of times, you have to deconstruct the whole dodger to fix individual windows on them. The way they’re put together, you must take a bunch of things apart to fix them and then put it back together.
“Other difficult repairs would be anything that is really large,” Keeler adds. “It can be a tough deal to repair a 50-foot one-piece boat cover. Plus, we’re weather-dependent here in the Northwest. We try to schedule more inside work for wintertime. Otherwise, you get burned if you tell someone you can do something and then it rains for five weeks straight.”
In the end, while canvas repairs may not be cash cows and don’t generally make up a huge part of a fabricator’s business, they are valuable tasks for a multitude of reasons.
“Canvas repairs are great training for us,” says Broc Wodzien, owner of Grand Traverse Canvas Works in Traverse City, Mich. “If you want your staff to visualize how something is constructed in a more forgiving environment, repairs are a good way to do it.”
“We like repairs,” adds Keeler. “It’s good for training. It’s helpful when we can put people on repairs. You’re not reinventing the wheel. It also gives you a chance to see how other people have done things and how things have been constructed.”
Most fabricators agree that the biggest issue with repairs is that boat owners often procrastinate getting them done, frequently waiting until the boating season is about to begin before remembering issues that popped up at the end of the previous season.
“Ideally, a boater will plan ahead,” says Wodzien. “They will have a work list for the offseason because they don’t want to lose any of their boating time. With people new to boating, we spend a lot of time educating them about things like that.”
Jeff Moravec is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn Park, Minn.