2022: Love a bit of Sewing

Canvas Work

In 2022, I did quite a bit of canvas work as I have a small industrial sewing machine on board, a priceless investment that has paid for itself many times over.  

Dodger

The windows in the dodger, bimini and joiner between dodger and bimini needed replacement as they had aged and you could hardly see anything through them.  These would be the dodger’s third set of windows as the originals were made in 2008, replaced in 2011 in Gibraltar after breaking one on our Atlantic crossing, and now 10 years later, no surprise that they needed further replacement.

I removed the dodger and soon realized that replacing windows on such a large item, down below inside the saloon on the chart table, was to be a particularly difficult undertaking.  I viewed some videos, finding Sailrite’s splendid collection of extremely helpful ones, and decided to follow their method of making up various panels and then fixing them together using zips.  

My one piece dodger quickly became six panels – top panel, 2 x side window panels, and 3 x front window panels.  These are all joined using zips with velcro flaps to ensure water tightness.  See photos.  The whole thing was pretty involved (Sailrite make it look easy) but almost all good except for one or two things.  For example, for reasons that completely escape me, when I finally fitted the ‘completed’ dodger back together, some gaps between a couple of edges have developed in two of the front windows and I couldn’t completely do the zip up.  Now fixed.  The dodger is certainly more weather proof than it has ever been and much easier to pull apart and then make small repairs, which are required most seasons.

Finally, I made covers for the stainless steel tubing bows where they rubbed against the windows.  I had not done this previously and my old windows had developed long unsightly burn marks over the years.  I just cut up a towel and put Velcro along the edges then fitted them to the bows.

Life-sling Cover

The original woven cloth cover had succumbed to being out in the weather and so was starting to fall apart, leaving a mess below when we stowed it at the end of each season.  I pulled the old cover apart and measured, then sewed a new sunbrella cover but retained the plastic inserts.  A fairly simple project.

Winch Covers

I serviced the six winches and then made sunbrella covers for each of them.

Stowage Bags

I purchased line stowage bags from Oz and fitted them to hold the lines that run to the cockpit so that the lines are held above the cockpit cushions and there is no accumulation of dirt.  The bags have netting at the bottom so that any water runs out.  Two more are attached to the front of the steering pedestal and used for all sorts of stuff that accumulates in the cockpit eg sun screen, sun glasses, personal safety lines, cockpit light, water bottles, etc.  Buying them was easier than making them in this instance!