Has anyone tried marine grade vinyl for cushions

[tms]

Power boats have many permanent/semi-permanent seating areas made with marine grade vinyl. Has anyone tried re-upholstering any sailboat seating areas with this vinyl instead of sunbrella material?

Would this eliminate the need to constantly bring cushions in and out of salon?

[Jim Cate]

Sure, folks have done this. Long ago I had a Catalina 22, and it had vinyl upholstery. Worked ok, felt nasty on bare skin, seemed sweaty if it was hot... looked and felt kinda sleazy. I didn't like it.

Since then, I've had various textile covers on cushions, and in recent years, leather. Sunbrella was not very successful, due to its extremely poor chafe resistance. Some of the kinda tweedy fabrics held up well, but didn't look good to me, and I don't know what fabric they were (OEM on our Yankee 30). Best textile we had for decent looks and very long wear was Nylon cordura "ballistic" material. Very tough, long wearing, nice bright colours available, as well as more subdued ones, a little slippery for staying put in rough wx.

But the cowhide leather has been great. Ours is now about 14 years old, we've been full time live aboard cruisers all that time, and just this week we did our first repair. It was the cushion that I sit on all the time, and it developed some cracks and a hole at the corner that sticks out into the passageway. We bought a full hide of identical leather for about 175 USD, and had an upholsterer redo the cushion for an additional 50 USD. We have more than half of the hide left for future issues. For all those years, we've enjoyed the luxurious feeling and easy cleaning of the leather, and most of it iis still pristine... er, well, at least looks quite good!

That's our experience, others may have different ideas.

Jim

[Suijin]

tms I'm not sure if you're referring to exclusively outdoor seating areas or interior as well. Back in the day, virtually all cockpit cushions were made out of a marine vinyl. My current cushions are marine vinyl on one side and mesh on the other. If I'm going to sit on one with bare skin touching it, I flip it over and sit on the mesh side because as Jim noted it is hot and sweaty stuff to sit on. When these wear out I'll probably go with full mesh cock pit cushions.

As a material for interior cushions? Can't imagine using vinyl at all. Yuck.

[zeehag]

marine vinyl with stitchery is same as all others..still gets wet inside and heavy and mold grows inside the covers.
i used to have vinyl cushion covers. no mas.
mine now are sunbrella with a plastic liner. much much better, and actually water proof. amazing how that works. stitching in any plastic makes waterproof fail. funny how that works.
line the cushion material in a plastic without stitchery and it works.

[anacapaisland42]

What about automotive fabric?

[Cheechako]

The down side to vinyl type fabric is it is sticky, so if you are going to hot climes it's kind of a PITA. Cleans up nice though.
As mentioned, for outdoor cushions, the key is the foam not the fabric so much.

[Cadence]

Vinyl doesn't breath. I don't like it. Sitting on it on a hot day is not pleasant. JMHO

[stnick]

On my Sabre i had Marine vinyl cockpit cushions made white with blue piping looked really sharp . I took care of them Inside all the time i was not using the boat !
Closed cell foam to so they could be used for flotation . I loved them .They were pricey
Now i have the mesh and its ok Im in florida and the mesh is the way to go i guess .
The mesh is cheeper.
No mater what you choose if you take care of them they will look good.

[reed1v]

Oh Yuck. Not vinyl. Sticky, sweaty, and stinky vinyl sure will give your boat a bad taste look.

[tms]

Great feedback. I just bought a Sailrite LSZ-1 and were watching their videos. They had some videos on replacing the marine vinyl on power boats, so I wondered if the same look could be made for sailboats.

It is common for powerboats to have all their seating made of vinyl, but I had never seen this look on a sailboat. Mesh or other breathable fabric is definitely the way to go for long hot days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiabMch6WM4

[captbig]

I have worked with both. I used Marine Vinyl It isn't as comfortable, but was great for when we came in wet on to the boat. Canvas like sunbrella is breathable, but was tougher when it was really wet.

[tamicatana]

Sunbrella FURNITURE Fabric. Wears well, nice hand, doesn’t chafe like the canvas, throw it in cold water wash, air dries very quickly. My salon cushion covers are almost 10 yr old and look great.

https://www.sailmakerssupply.com/cat...olstery-fabric

PS piping holds dirt and is less comfortable IMO

[Deep Blue Water]

If you go the route of marine grade vinyl, make sure you get a proper name brand and not the cheapo off-shore stuff. Also molded (impression) stitching instead of thread stitching is resistant to tearing and also prevents water intrusion.

[capn_billl]

I used vinyl, and made Sunbrella covers.

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by zeehag

marine vinyl with stitchery is same as all others..still gets wet inside and heavy and mold grows inside the covers.
i used to have vinyl cushion covers. no mas.
mine now are sunbrella with a plastic liner. much much better, and actually water proof. amazing how that works. stitching in any plastic makes waterproof fail. funny how that works.
line the cushion material in a plastic without stitchery and it works.

It doesn't sound like your vinyl cushions were upholstered correctly. The foam still should have been wrapped in plastic. The plastic doesn't care what the outer skin is made of. I re-upholstered 20 yr old marine vinyl seats which were made properly and didn't find any mold inside.