[Rhodes22-list] FW: Thread and canvas care

[ed kroposki]

-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Bell [mailto:alex at marinercanvas.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 5:06 PM
To: ekroposki at charter.net
Subject: Thread and canvas care

ED,

The thread we use is Goretex "Tenara" thread. It is gauranteed to last 
the life of the fabric it stitches.  It is strong enough to withstand 
severe winds. We've made full covers for several boats (one is a 30' 
Proline power boat that has huge cockpit that needed to be protected so 
as to keep the boat from being swamped during hurricane type rains.) 
 That boat and several others we've made went through Hurricane Isobel 
and Hurricane Ophelia without any damages. We've had a bimini suffer 
damage during a microburst at Norhtwest Ctreek Marina, and the fabric 
ripped out when the boat (34' O'Day) was driven under the dock. The 
Tenara thread did not fail, but the Sumbrella was storn by the dock.

We use Sunbrella for the Jib roller furling sun cover, as do most 
people. It is reasonably priced for the job it's called upon to do. One 
thing that Glen Raven Mills 9mfg) tells us with regard to care is to use 
303 Fabric Guard at least once a year. Sunbrella is designed to 
"breathe" so as not to grow mold and mildew. It's not a waterproof 
fabric, but a water resistant fabric. Applying tow to thre LIGHT 
MISTINGS of 303 Fabric Guard will replace the water resistance (good on 
coats, bloves and boots as well) and it adds UV protection. UV is our 
enemy. It kills the thread (except Tenara) and attacks the fabric. So 
303 is good.

Other products can be used, but kill the breathability of Sunbrella. Any 
product, such as  Starbrite, that has silicone in the mix will 
waterproof the fabric, but will block the breathability, which will 
result in things growing green. Living in the mold and mildew capital of 
the world ( our vinyl sided house needs to be pressure washed yearly) we 
look for ways to prevent the nastys.

Nylon and Dacron do not hold up well to UV and need protection of the 
covers. That's why people invest in expensive sail covers to prevent the 
loss of expensive sails. If your sails are getting really tired, you 
should consider SAILCARE . We are agents for them and ship sails out for 
our customers. I've personally used their service and recommend them 
highly. They can provide any service your sails might need and are 
reasonably priced. We had one genoa jub go out for service which the 
customer thought he needed. They repaird some stitching (that seems to 
be biggist problem with sails) then cleanded the sails and then 
re-resined the sails. The process seems to shrink the sail back to 
original shape and size. This sail had gone out a "deck sweeper and came 
back "AS NEW"  The cost for this service is around 10% to 20% of the 
cost of a new sail. So it's a good deal.

I'm not on the list these days since there's lots going on with our 
business. Just got the website up with some information on it 
 (www.marinercanvas.com) Still needs tweaking, but it's finally got some 
pics and info.  You can share this email with list if you think it's 
worthwhile.

Alex