Dinghy tubes cover - Ionian

[simonthepom]

Looking for some advise on where to get a dinghy cover made, as I've got a quote from a couple of places, Levkas and Corfu and the prices seem a bit steep. I know it's intricate work to get a good fit, but one of the places is asking for €650 inc. tax. At that price I should've just bought a hypalon dinghy....

Or would I be better off waiting until we go to another country, i.e. Montenegro, Croatia, Sicily, Balearics etc??

Cheers,

Simon

 

[sailaboutvic]

Simon cover are going to be expences where ever you have them made , near a price of a new dinghy , we made our own but after saying that not everyone handy with sowing . One suggestion is you could just get some long canvas and dart it to make it fit . One way or another if you want your dinghy to last in the Med you going to need to get it covered or the sun or any Thing it rub on will soon eat it away .

 

[Davy_S]

In most towns in the Ionian there is usually a business, one man band type, that specialises in making awnings and all types of covers for Tavernas, shops etc. They are normally called ;Tentes: if you have one locally, it could be worth simply asking a price for the work you want. The materials they use are varied in price and quality, they can stand the mad heat without falling apart. could be worth a try.

 

[duncan99210]

I tend to agree with Vic, a price of €650 would be about the sort of price I'd expect to pay for a dinghy cover. We've made two of the things now and they are difficult to do. You have to make a pattern, then cut the fabric and tack in place on the dinghy and adjust before sewing. Having sewn it up, you then got to get the thing to a fit on the tubes by means of putting in pleats and darts as required, you then need to accommodate all the bits on the tubes: valves, row locks, grab handles, seats etc, all of which takes time. All those holes need reinforcing to stop fraying in use. About four or five days work for a skilled person - it took two of us about ten days! Then add in the cost of the canvas at about €20 a metre (you'll need getting on for double the length of your tubes, so for a 2.5 metre dinghy you'll need about 5 metres, plus another 2.5 of you need a cover for an inflatable deck, say 7.5 metres so €150 for the canvas) and you can see why the things cost so much.

You may find someone cheaper. Have you tried Sioux Sails in Nidri? No idea if they'd be cheaper but we chickened out of making a new sprayhood and they did an excellent job of work plus they delivered early.

 

[GrahamM376]

If you can get your hands on an old sturdy domestic machine, they're not too hard to make, just fiddly around fittings. Standard width 153cm fabric split in half along the length and hemmed is plenty wide enough on most dinghies for each tube. Rather than mess around with darts, the easy way is to make each tube section as separates and a couple of inches longer than necessary so the next one overlaps, put them in place and chalk where you want the joins, tack or use double sided tape and check for fit then remove and sew. Bottom hems are marked and sewn once cover complete. Best way to fix it to the dinghy tubes is to sew velcro on to pvc strips and then stick the pvc patches to tubes, velcro stuck direct tends to come off in a year or so. Mine took less than a week working alone and material were <100 euro. but I already had a machine.