New spray hood using old as pattern

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cindersailor

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I have been putting off buying a new spray hood for a few years due to the very high cost - always something better to spend on. The old one was at least 15 years old, been patched up twice and had new windows. Most sail makers will not make a spray hood without visiting the boat to make a pattern and fit the new one, but this of course adds a lot to the cost. The reasons for this are understandable, but difficult to justify for some who might be prepared to accept the risk of a slightly less than perfect fit. I did consider DIY, and know others have successfully done this, but ruled it out as being beyond my sewing abilities. Sabre Sails in Swansea have started advertising on e-bay to make a spray hood using the old one as a pattern for a little less that half what I have been quoted for the full measure, make and fit service by my local sailmaker, and I decided to give them a go. It was delivered a little over 2 weeks after posting the old one to them and I fitted it this weekend. They supplied the lift-the-dot fixings to fit myself (an easy job with a hole punch and Stanley knife) and this enabled a good tight and even fitting to the frame and coach roof to be achieved; only one of the fixing points on the coach roof needed to be moved, and only by about 10 mm. I am very pleased with the outcome and thought others would be interested to know that a good result can be achieved in this way if you are prepared to accept the uncertainty involved. Quite a lot can be done at the fitting stage to compensate for the inevitable minor differences from the original. Just one caveat that I can think of and that would be if the old spray hood was unduly stretched or shrunken as this would be difficult to compensate for and would be reproduced in the new hood. No connection with Sabre Sails, just a customer happy to endorse a good service/product.
 
I have considered doing that and Comfort Afloat in Gosport say they can do it. Ours has shrunk quite a lot and I understand if I show on a sketch how much bigger it needs to be on each edge then they can take that into account. Again, they'll provide the fixings for us to fit. Thanks for pointing out your positive experience!
 
Hoolie said:
I have considered doing that and Comfort Afloat in Gosport say they can do it. Ours has shrunk quite a lot and I understand if I show on a sketch how much bigger it needs to be on each edge then they can take that into account. Again, they'll provide the fixings for us to fit. Thanks for pointing out your positive experience!
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That is interesting. Some years ago I had a cockpit enclosure made by Comfort Afloat and i was very happy with the price, workmanship and service from them. I could do with a new sprayhood but my boat is kept abroad so getting CA to measure it would be out of the question but if they can make a new one using the old as pattern I would get them to do it.
 
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We made our own using the old sprayhood as a pattern. The problem was, the old one had disintegrated too far and some guesswork was involved. The result is good but not perfect, but cost less than £200.

The moral is, if you are going to do it, do it before the old one is too decrepit to use as a decent pattern.

- W
 
That makes a lot of sense! Sadly ours is just shrunk and doesn't connect. In all other respects it's fine and our cat really loves rolling about on top in the sun
 
A friend just had a new spray hood made by Comfort Afloat. I tried to persuade them to do it from the old one but, when they saw the state of it, they said it was too far gone to provide accurate measurements. I don't doubt them 'cos it had shrunk enough that several lift the dot fasteners had torn out
 
One of the first things I'll be doing once my 43ft center cockpit yacht is in the water will be building a f/g dodger. It will be a very light sandwich construction (Divinycell) which I will do myself. It will have an opening hatch (window) at the front and also overhead. (I already have two houdini hatches which i can use) I prefer f/g (it will be cheaper(?). Any comments please?

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Were I to need a new spray hood, I'd be tempted to do the same.

Standing, I can see over the hood, so we almost never take it down. The rigid windscreen means we could see through it in the rain, which would allow us to use the cockpit tent and stay dry. One rather cold day, we motored with the tent up to stay warm, which was fine until we approached Chichester Bar, when the heavens opened and visibility through the vinyl windows of the spray hood was so bad we had to take the cockpit tent down and stand in the rain. That in spite of having treated it with Rain Clear.
 
Some years ago I was asked by a sailmaker if he could use my sprayhood as a pattern to make one for an identical boat which was some distance away. Thus saving him a long journey. I agreed, the sprayhood was made to suit my boat and AFAIK fitted ok although I never actually saw it.
He stitched a few holes in my sail cover in return.
 
We made our own replacement spray hood at home on our robust home sewing machine out of acrylic canvas. I enjoyed the project but don't start from the old one, its not a good template, it will have shrunk in varying degrees across different panels. Make a proper template with cheap PVC tarpaulin material after you have set the spray hood bars up with rope to get them in the correct position. There are quite a few utube videos on how to do it , sailright being pretty helpful. Use the old one as a guide. I sourced the canvas and fittings from the web mainly using Profabrics.co.uk. 2.5 years latter all well and expecting the hood to last up to 10 years no trouble.
I estimate the cost of materials was around £200 vs the quotes that I have from £800 to £1000 in the Porstmouth area, I reckon I spent around 25 to 30 hours on it.

Good luck
 
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seumask said:
We made our own replacement spray hood at home on our robust home sewing machine out of acrylic canvas. I enjoyed the project but don't start from the old one, its not a good template, it will have shrunk in varying degrees across different panels. Make a proper template with cheap PVC tarpaulin material after you have set the spray hood bars up with rope to get them in the correct position. There are quite a few utube videos on how to do it , sailright being pretty helpful. Use the old one as a guide. I sourced the canvas and fittings from the web mainly using Profabrics.co.uk. 2.5 years latter all well and expecting the hood to last up to 10 years no trouble.
I estimate the cost of materials was around £200 vs the quotes that I have from £800 to £1000 in the Porstmouth area, I reckon I spent around 25 to 30 hours on it.

Good luck
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Good post, I think the figures are the nub of the matter.

A local upholsterer said he could copy my old hood for about £425 the quote from a good, local marine source was £600, I am fairly handy with a sewing machine but it's a fiddly job.
The upshot was I had the marine people do it, they visited to measure up, etc. Had it been £800, or more, I am pretty certain I would have had a crack at it.
 
When you place panels from an old sprayhood on to a flat surface you find they are no longer flat. So say you have a roughly triangular side panel. You place it over the new fabric and hold down one edge with some paperweights. You find the apex of the triangle moves several inches depending on which of the other two edges you follow.
I think making a template is a lot safer. And probably quicker than trying to flatten the old sprayhood to measure the panels.

I need to remake mine as the screen cracked when I took it off for re-stitching. There's a lesson there. Old clear plastic screens crack very easily in cold weather. Wait for the Summer!

I see Kayospruce do templating material for £3/m
 
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