Fairline upholstery

tico said:
Looking to get the cockpit of our T31 re-upholstered. Anyone know what the grade of vinyl is best for the job?.... or do I just spec 'marine grade vinyl'

Any other suggestions?
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Tico, you should contact Martin Duce at MJ in Hockley Essex. Likely (I can't be sure of T31) he made the originals for FL and has the patterns. So he can make factory perfect replacements, in any fabric you want. He stocks beige sunbrella and the beige and white vinyls that FL use. His work is perfect and very competitive on price

Once I got Mastertrim to copy my old cushions (before I discovered Martin) and the dimensions were all a bit out. Looked a mess. On my new boat I got Martin to make all the covers again (I didn't like the colours FL had used) and he did a perfect job. I'll pm you his contact info

Alas he is not convenient to you geographically but if you want a perfect job it's worth overcoming that. Anyway, if he has the patterns he will do them mail order and you put the foam in yourself
 
Thx jfm, I'll call him in the morning. I've done full drawings anyway. Any thoughts on changing from plain vinyl to sunbrella? or do you think that it'd look wrong, (next step would be to replace the fixed parts and helm seat to match anyway.
 
tico said:
Thx jfm, I'll call him in the morning. I've done full drawings anyway. Any thoughts on changing from plain vinyl to sunbrella? or do you think that it'd look wrong, (next step would be to replace the fixed parts and helm seat to match anyway.
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Goodo. PM sent. Once you change to Sunbrella you'll wonder why you didn't do it years ago. It looks and feels fantastic. You need "Sunbrella Plus" tho, not sunbrella. SP has a vinyl skin glued to the reverse side of the cloth, so it is totally waterproof. Woodie100 on here has a T47 and ordered it in beige sunbrella, and I've been on it and it looks the biz

Your choice, but I'd go for safe colour and funk it up with colourful cushions. I have the "woodgrain look" beige, as does Woodie, called Dupione Sand 8011. This is used widely by FL as standard upgrade on Squadrons. I also have a set just for the aft cockpit in the same Dupione but in dark brown, called "Walnut", and they look fab too (with very bright cushions) if you want a change of scene

If you're asking about mixing vinyl and Sunbrella, that works well. On my flybridge I have sunbrella on the dining table and "chaise longue" thing, but beige vinyl on the dining backrests, 3 helm seats and the front sunpad. Looks very nice imho. The beige colour of this vinyl is just called "Waterweave Sand" but Martin Duce knows it well as it is standard FL fit on many boats. It has a matt suede-like texture, not glossy, and that makes it much nicer. A few pics at bottom- in all these pics there is both beige vinyl and beige Sunbrella but you sometimes have to look hard to see the join!

There is a new vinyl that looks/feels quite like cloth. Nick H has posted about it. Sealine use it on the fly of the new F46. It's quite good, but not as nice as sunbrella imho, though is well suited to areas that get lots of water. (If sunbrella gets wet it repells most of the water and in the Med the rest just dries off. But in UK waters it wont dry off as quickly I guess). Personally, I would prefer the slightly suede-feel of the Waterweave Sand beige vinyl, and I also think the colour is better - the beige in this new vinyl is a slightly muddier colour (which you can see on sealine website pics of F46) but this is all very much personal choice for sure and this new vinyl is pretty posh stuff

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That all looks so fab, jfm. BTW and sorry 'bout the drift but I was reminded of this by your pix. Did you see the teak laid east-west rather than north-south on the Sessa f/b in the new MBY? I kinda liked it but thought it will date quickly if it doesn't catch on.
 
benjenbav said:
That all looks so fab, jfm. BTW and sorry 'bout the drift but I was reminded of this by your pix. Did you see the teak laid east-west rather than north-south on the Sessa f/b in the new MBY? I kinda liked it but thought it will date quickly if it doesn't catch on.
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Yep, saw it, and on some of their boats in Cannes show last year. All a matter of personal opinion, but I think it looks just daft; hate it. I want to be reminded how decks used to be made, and that means deck frames going east-west and teak planks curved from the gunwhale inwards, meeting at a notched king plank in the middle. OK I know in real FairPrinSunseeker life it's all GRP underneath, ditto Feadship (ok they use steel underneath) but it should still look right imho! :-) Even the most modernist of boat designers (Basani/Wally, say) don't commit cardinal sins like transverse deck planks! That apart, Sessa are making some very nice stuff
 
All looks brilliant, and much more up-to-date than plain white vinyl.

will talk to MJ , &may well go for the waterweave sand vinyl as its to be used in Wales (lots of rain) so it can get a bit wet at times. would much prefer the suede type feel compared to smooth shiny.

Thks for all comments
 
Tico,

just following up from jfm's comments (thanks jfm!).

We've had 4 boats (in the UK and in the Med) and we've only specced one ourselves. The first 3 had vinyl everywhere in the cockpit (and the FL leather sofas in the saloon). We really wanted to go for something different in the T47 that we chose the fabrics for and were initially dissuaded from this by some of the FL people we spoke to.

We're really, really pleased we went the way we did. I'd concur with everything jfm says - the sunbrella is far better than the vinyl (imho looks better, more pleasant to sit on and you don't stick to it!) and is pretty much as serviceable. The water just runs off it and it still looks pretty good on our boat 4 seasons in (and we have done a reasonable amount of chartering on our boat as well).

As jfm said, we went beige for the cockpit cushions. We thought it would break up the all white GRP - we thought the all white of GRP and cushions became a bit much on our other boats! We still need the bright cushions to break it up though (jfm's piccies look great and the cushions do the job).

Best of luck with the re-fit.

Adam
 
tico said:
Looks like beige it is...... you'll have to wait a bit for the pics , but I promise to post 'before' and 'after' shots
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Ref the hardiness of sunbrella, this page is worth a look.
http://www.sunbrella.com/na/stain_chart.php
It's a list of stains and how to remove them. It says to use acetone, bleach, amonia, iron, and all sorts of things you'd normally worry about using on fabric. And the list of stains includes dried blood, chewing gum, coffee, auto grease, mascara, vomit, shoe polish, urine and probably digshot if you scroll down far enough. I reckon you could grab a sick gay gum-chewing brogue-wearing car mechanic walking his dog back from Starbucks, murder them both in your cockpit with a breadknife, and still clean it all up so that Columbo wouldn't suss you out, if you needed to. And if the car in which Marvin got accidentally shot had been upholstered in sunbrella, the whole plot in Pulp Fiction might have turned out differently :-)

Try it out Tico on the sample I've mailed you.
 
I still reckon the plot the same - Mr Wolf (weird...) tells them to line the car with rugs aftr cleaning of the bulk of the brains etc, and I am pretty sure it'll be just the same with jfm's beige cockpit seating, altho granted the scatter cushions look as tho they'll be able to take it...
 
Crikey, Hugo's got to hold the front page for this. Combining "Our Fleet" with Pulp Fiction.

In a hotel room somewhere in downtown Nice a phone rings. A man is sitting on a hotel bed, hunched over a laptop. He is either crunching the numbers on a multi-billion deal or replying to a thread on ybw.com - it's hard to tell. Reluctantly he picks up the phone and then jots down some names on a notepad. "It's 30 nautical miles away," he says, "I'll be there in an hour and ten"

ONE HOUR, NINE MINUTES AND THITY SEVEN SECONDS LATER

The same man, still slightly incongrously wearing a dinner jacket - it is early morning - walks over to the next-door boat and knocks. Another man opens the door. This man looks as though he is not having a good day.

First man: "You're Benjie, right? This is your boat?

Second man: "Sure is"

First man: "I'm John Wolf. I solve problems."

Second man: "Good. We got one."

First man: So I heard. May I come in?"

The scene develops. Briefly, some forumites have dumped a headless corpse in back of the flybridge. (It was quite a party; some exchange students from up in the Italian hills apparently). Blood is everywhere and there are some scatter cushions which, to be honest, do not look as though they will make it.

Mr Wolf inspects the scene and returns to the saloon.

Mr Wolf: "Benjie, this looks to be a pretty domesticated boat. This would lead me to believe that under the sink, or in the lazarette you've got a bunch of cleaners, cleansers, stuff like that?"

Benjie: "Yeah, yeah Mr Wolf"

Mr Wolf: "Good. 'Cos what we have here is sunbrella. Sunbrella extra, if I'm not mistaken. So what I need you guys to do is take those cleansers - anything: bleach, acetone, mr muscle - it doesn't matter. Clean those flybridge soft fabrics. I'm talkin' fast, fast, fast. It needs to be spick and span and, trust me, with sunbrella it will be." Benjie, the cushions need to be deep sixed, you hear me?

Benjie: "A please would be nice."

Mr Wolf: "Listen buster. I'm not here to say please. I'm here to tell you what to do and if self preservation is an instinct you possess, you better do it and do it quick. I'm here to help. If my help is not appreciated, then lots of luck, my friend. If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor. I think fast. I talk fast. And if you want to get out of here, you're gonna have to act fast. So pretty, please, with sugar on top. Clean the flybridge."
 
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