Sprayhood Fabric

[Freydis]

Looking for opinions on sprayhood fabric.

Currently between Sauleda (acrylic canvas) and Weathermax 80 (Polyester canvas)

What do you like or dislike and why?

 

[Tranona]

Welcome.

Direct competitors. You will find advocates of both (as well as for other competing brands). You can't go wrong with either (or Sumbrella!).

 

[Graham376]

Sauleda have many different fabrics, I use their Masacril Special, last sprayhood lasted about 17 years. Easy to sew and cuts without fraying, holds its colour well. Have never used Weathermax so can't compare.

 

[dave_gibsea]

My friendly cover-maker is making me a new sprayhood in a new fabric called Top Gun. He also uses Weathermax I believe but more for general covers. Remember the expensive part of any cover is the time and workmanship.

 

[Roberto]

Looking for opinions on sprayhood fabric.

Currently between Sauleda (acrylic canvas) and Weathermax 80 (Polyester canvas)

What do you like or dislike and why?

I do not know the Weathermax. Have used Sauleda for everything (bimini, sprayhood, lazy bag, weatherclothes etc) some are 10+ year old and in perfect shape/colour, I feel no need to try any other fabric. There may be "better" ones but I can't see how, Sauleda does it for me

 

[Martin_J]

Freydis.... where in the world are you?

I've used WeatherMAX 80 for UV strips in genoas, Top Gun for sprayhoods and cockpit tents and Top Gun for a sprayhood.

I seem to think the WeatherMAX 80 is a lighter weight fabric compared to the common Sauleda and Sunbrella fabrics ( which tend to be used for sprayhoods, biminis and cockpit tents).

The Top Gun was fairly long lasting but would be an acquired taste, being a slightly shiny fabric compared with the softer feel of Sauleda and I did feel the need to replace with Sauleda in under ten years.

Top gun is supposed to remain supple in very cold conditions but then I've never really found Sunbrella or Sauleda to go stiff in uk conditions (unlike the window material).

 

[AndrewB]

For many years I used Sunbrella Plus - Sunbrella with a polyurethane undercoating . But it seems harder to find. My present sprayhood is Sunbrella Marine sprayed every couple of years with Fabsil, which is effectively waterproof. Nine years old now, the material is still pretty good though the stitching was redone at seven years.

 

[geem]

My friendly cover-maker is making me a new sprayhood in a new fabric called Top Gun. He also uses Weathermax I believe but more for general covers. Remember the expensive part of any cover is the time and workmanship.

We have some Top Gun fabric we used for chaps on our dinghy. It came highly recommended. A little disappointed with it. We replaced it with acrylic canvas that seems more durable. We may have just been unlucky but it got ripped in the first week very easily