DavidJ
Well-known member
It’s amazing how smart a tender can look with a bit (read a lot) of care and attention to seat covers. The teaky bits are nice as well.A few thoughts @SC35 :
1. another vote from me for Silvertex. It is made by Spradling not Sunbrella, and is one of a range of textured vinyls they make, that have a sort of cloth-like feel. The others include "carbon fibre" and "hitch", all listed here, but imho Silvertex is the best. I have just specified it on 2 new boats and one refit of an older boat.
2. Another high end vinyl is Rancati Morbern Sundance. Not a great website but very impressive/high quality material when you see it for real. Used OEM by Sanlorenzo and Riva, but not easy to get in UK
3. Plenty of high end boats, FG and others, still use vinyl not cloth material outside, including Riva.
4. Each to their own but I would avoid plain slabby sheets of the stuff like in Portofino's pictures above. It will ripple and looks bland, plus the vinyl cover will "roll around" the foam insides during ordinary use, so the foam and vinyl become misaligned. I suggest you make a sausage under the knee like in DavidJ's/ Tico's/Greg2's pictures in #2, #14 and#16 above, and/or introduce piping and welded patterns - picture below is my tender done in Silvertex pre-welded into diamonds, with sausages, piping and some plan/flat pieces, all mixed up together.