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Marine project wins Best of Canada in the 2025 IAAs

Swatches | January 5, 2026 | By:

A large white yacht named Last Call floats on calm water, surrounded by lush green forests and snow-capped mountains under a clear blue sky.
MV Last Call, an Intermarine 120 model, arrived in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, for a multiyear, multimillion-dollar overhaul that was completed in 2025. Part of that renovation was the client’s desire to have a sundeck enclosure that was adaptable but didn’t require panel removal and storage. The project won big in the IAAs. Image: SALTY BUOY Marine Canvas Inc./Brett Ryan Studios

Charter yacht MV Last Call, which cruises from Alaska to Mexico, needed a modular, multi-season sundeck enclosure so guests could enjoy the hot tub no matter the latitude. To properly outfit the 40.3-meter (132-foot) luxury vessel, the planning and fabrication had to be meticulous.

What began as a three-sided enclosure with four panels on each side grew to later include the aft section of the sundeck.

Wooden frame that is a scale model prototype for the enclosure project done by SALTY BUOY Marine Canvas Inc. The fabric panels that slide behind each other have red text and logos on them.
Scale model prototyping (above), creating custom components, attention to detail, and R&D on bonding PVC to clear acrylic all were a part of the work on the enclosure projects for the yacht MV Last Call. Image: SALTY BUOY Marine Canvas Inc.

“The outermost panels remained fixed, while the adjacent inner panels could slide behind them,” say the notes for the winning International Achievement Award entry, written by Derek Newcombe, MFC, of SALTY BUOY Marine Canvas Inc., of Vancouver, B.C., Canada. “The enclosure initially spanned 16 feet per side and 18 feet across the front, with a height of approximately 3.5 feet from the hard top to the surrounding railing.”

View from a boat interior showing a zippered door with a window. A hockey-stick zippered path allows single-handed operation of the door, and a parallel second rail enables the door panel to slide left or right behind the adjacent panel Calm water reflects a clear sky.
A hockey-stick zippered path allows single-handed operation, and a parallel second rail enables the door panel to slide left or right behind the adjacent panel to create an expanded passageway when needed for service. Image: SALTY BUOY Marine Canvas Inc.

Chief among challenges was developing a fastening system. “The polished stainless-steel railing, enhanced with smoked acrylic panels, eliminated conventional installation methods. To overcome this, a keder-to-zipper mechanism was devised,” Newcombe writes. The brackets were designed to align so perfectly with the canvas that they would seem original to the boat.

It was essential to guests and staff alike that the enclosure be able to be opened with one hand, so the system has a hockey-stick zippered path. A second rail allows the width of the opening to vary.

A modern yacht's upper deck with large window panels that can be slid behind fixed canvas window panels. The yacht, called Last Call, has a sleek white exterior and is set against a partly cloudy sky.
The IAA-award-winning yacht sundeck project was part of the report for Derek Newcombe’s Master Fabric Craftsman certification and expanded in scope as the project developed. Image: SALTY BUOY Marine Canvas Inc.

In the end, “the entire enclosure encompassed nearly 80 linear feet,” and work on it included prototype scale modeling, testing how to bond PVC to clear acrylic, and creating and sourcing custom components.

The enclosure was one part of a multimillion renovation of the boat, completed in 2025, that took several years.

Close-up of a sleek, reflective metal railing installed by SALTY BUOY Marine Canvas Inc., set against a backdrop of a the modern interior of the yacht Last Call.
One of the most complex challenges involved the development of a fastening system for the sundeck’s enclosure, solved with a keder-to-zipper mechanism using Makefast SS Trimtrack and CNC-cut 316 stainless steel ornamental brackets. Image: SALTY BUOY Marine Canvas Inc.

Project Name: Last Call for Sundeck Enclosure

Awards: Powerboat: Rigid Enclosures, Award of Excellence and Best of Canada, 2025 International Achievement Awards (IAAs)

Company: SALTY BUOY Marine Canvas Inc., Vancouver, B.C., Canada

Design: Derek Newcombe, MFC, SALTY BUOY

Fabrication: Derek Newcombe, SALTY BUOY; Andrew Thompson, Brenco Industries, metal fabrication

Installation: Derek Newcombe, SALTY BUOY; Luke Browne, Cillian McMullan, Flagship Yacht Charters LLC

Fabrics: Stamoid Open, Serge Ferrari Group; AquaGlas®, Piedmont Plastics®; Trim Track, Makefast Group; Costa Track, Costa Marine Canvas and Enclosures; keder, Keder Solutions

If you are an Advanced Textiles Association member, you can have your best projects considered for an International Achievement Award. Entry is open annually, April through June.

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