Sailboat: Dodger, Helm Cover, Winch Covers, Sail Cover

Custom Sailboat Dodger, Sail Cover, Helm Cover, Winch CoversFor this sailboat we created a custom dodger, helm cover, winch covers and sail cover.

Here at Chicago Marine Canvas, everything we do is custom. We use many cost-effective, labor-saving tools that help us speed up the process, therefore you save some money. This also helps us make sure that your cover will fit perfectly when it comes to install time!

The first thing we do to begin our process is journey out to your boat. Once we get Custom Sailboat Dodger, Sail Cover, Helm Cover, Winch Coversthere we use our 3D measuring device to take precise pinpoint measurements. After we gather all of those, we head back to our shop where our designer gets to work. We use CAD (Computer-Aided-Design) Software during our design process. On the computer we can see the thing we can see the design in 3D.Custom Sailboat Dodger, Sail Cover, Helm Cover, Winch Covers

Making sure everything matched in color, we used Sunbrella fabric in the color toast. Sunbrella is one of our favorite marine fabrics to use when it comes to canvas, it comes with 10 year warranty. For all the things we sewed up for this job, we used  SolarFix thread in clear, which has a lifetime guarantee. This means, no more restitching after your new canvas has been out in the sun for a few years! This thread will outlast the canvas it self!

We made sure to add leather reinforcement patches on the forward and aft areas of the dodger where Custom Sailboat Dodger, Sail Cover, Helm Cover, Winch Coversthere would be high amounts of friction on the sailboat. For the windows of this dodger we used Strataglass. Strataglass is the only vinyl on the market that offers a 2 year warranty if it is properly maintained and cleaned.

For this sailboat we also made matching winch covers out of sunbrella fabric as well as a matching helm cover!

31st Harbor Shade Sails

31st Harbor Shade SailsCustom shade sails are a great way to keep you cool all summer. At the 31st Harbor in Chicago we replaced their old shade sails and made some brand new ones.

We start off every project by going on site to do custom measurements with our 3d measuring device. This tool is great because it saves us time, which at the end of the day saves you money. It is quicker and more efficient then doing measurements by hand, especially on a project this size that could have possibly taken hours to measure due to the wind speeds and how high we would have had to have gone to measure at the tops of these structures. After we got our measurements, we head back to the shop to do some design work on the computer. Once we got the designs all figured out we started plotting them out with our plotter!

We fabricated these out of Polyfab, which is a commonly used shade sail material. Their line called Comtex is perfect for medium residential projects as well as large scale commercial ones. It is a high strength fabric that can reduce 90% of UV rays. Comtex is made from virgin resins and has one of the best UV stabilizers that are both lead and heavy metal free.

We also used GORE tenara thread, which has a life time guarantee. This means that the thread we used will outlast the fabric itself. It doesn’t get effected by the elements like other threads.

Along with the GORE tenara we used Polyfab’s shade sail 2″ edge webbing all around the edges of the shade sails. This is a polyester webbing that has a breaking strength of 4,700 pound force.

31st Street Harbor Shade SailsPolyfab Comtex has a 10 year limited warranty. This means if your shade sail is installed properly it should last you ten years. The care for this product requires a mild dish soap and a low pressure water hose. Using any other kind of chemicals on this product can deteriorate the UV stabilizers as well as the fabric itself, this will void it’s warranty.