Material for Steering Wheel covers?

nigelmercier

nigelmercier

RIP
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Live in Kent, boat in Canary Islands
www.bavariayacht.info
The Material for cockpit cover thread reminds me ...

Last year I bought a new pair of leather grips for my "steering wheels", but I haven't fitted them yet. As soon as I fit them, they are going to be lashed by the Canary Island sun, so I figure a pair of covers would be a good idea.

I'm not thinking of those poncey covers that go over the whole wheel, more like the naff covers everyone had in their cars in the 60s. A strip of fabric, length as wheel circumference, sewn in a ring, with bungy in both hems.

It needs to be UV resistant, but not waterproof. On the rare occasions it rains, I don't want the lower half filling up!

Suggestions?
 
nigelmercier said:
It needs to be UV resistant, but not waterproof. On the rare occasions it rains, I don't want the lower half filling up!
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Quite right - there's a boat on our pontoon with a wheel cover made of some waterproof material. The bottom segment is usually sloshing about like a full nappy!

Pete
 
Decent leather won't deteriorate very quickly in sunlight. If you want to protect it, it's easy to spray it with 303 UV Protectant.
.
 
nigelmercier said:
The Material for cockpit cover thread reminds me ...

Last year I bought a new pair of leather grips for my "steering wheels", but I haven't fitted them yet. As soon as I fit them, they are going to be lashed by the Canary Island sun, so I figure a pair of covers would be a good idea.

I'm not thinking of those poncey covers that go over the whole wheel, more like the naff covers everyone had in their cars in the 60s. A strip of fabric, length as wheel circumference, sewn in a ring, with bungy in both hems.

It needs to be UV resistant, but not waterproof. On the rare occasions it rains, I don't want the lower half filling up!

Suggestions?
Click to expand...

Uncoated acrylic canvas. Point North have it in a wide variety of flavours.
 
nigelmercier said:
I'm not thinking of those poncey covers that go over the whole wheel, more like the naff covers everyone had in their cars in the 60s. A strip of fabric, length as wheel circumference, sewn in a ring, with bungy in both hems.
Click to expand...

An elasticated circumpheral cover will go all crinkly from the elastic and look like girls' knickers. Then the bungy will lose its elasticity as it always does and your cover will go all saggy and end up looking like a pair of an old granny's draws. I'd make a full poncy cover.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
I'd make a full poncy cover.
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I'm not sure exactly what Nigel means by "full poncy cover", but we have about as "full" a cover as you can get. It covers the whole binnacle, and the wheel, down to the cockpit sole. The original reason for it was that copious amounts of rainwater leaks into the binnacle through various orifices both deliberate and unwanted, and rains down into the engine bay. Refurbishing the binnacle to prevent this is on the job list, but in the meantime we needed a cover. Once the binnacle is weatherproof, the cover will still do a good job of protecting the instruments (instead of individual fiddly sun covers), hiding the VHF handset (obviously it could still be stolen if someone investigated under the cover, but it keeps it out of view) and protecting the new leather covering on the wheel.

I think I would have the same again rather than something that just hooks over the wheel.

Pete
 
AngusMcDoon said:
It's not waterproof but has a water repellency coating on it when made that causes water to bead like on new waterproofs. A warm wash in a washing machine gets rid of that if its not wanted.
Click to expand...

Mine remains fully waterproof 3 years after purchase with numerous washes. I didn't buy the cheap stuff though
 
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