MYOG for sailing

[jimmy b]

Hey AndE if you made it here I have included a few pics of MYOG projects I crafted for our pocket cruiser sailboat. Among other modifications made to the boat we (the wife and I) made our own cockpit cushions and a sheet bag. The sheet bag is mounted inside to the stern to hold various lines which are sometimes called sheets. Well sailing terminology is a whole other thing but I thought you might like to take a peek. After sitting my boney A$$ on the hard fiberglass non skid seats for a few seasons I priced up a set of cushions and much to my surprise they were outrageously priced. And shipping made them all that much more so. Well long story short I bought a HD sewing machine and all most paid for it with the two projects.

For others, this link was started to show a few non BPing related MYOG. Hope it wasn't a bother.

Seat cushions -pacific blue with cornflower yellow piping of sunbrella material

Seat cushions in the boat

Sheet bag also of sunbrella with black mesh bottoms for drainage

Oh and here is a tote for the wife. I need to make some color coded for the boat

[Jon Holthaus]

Jimmy,

Very well done! What foam did you use for that seat? Pricing 2-3" foam isn't cheap either. The piping looks very professional as well.

That sheet back is also pretty clever, we have a 19' lightning which I always look at wondering what could be improved on. What did you use in the sheet bag to hold the shape on the outside of the pocket?

Very nice job.
Jon

[jimmy b]

Jon thanks for the kind words. Cushions were for our Precision 165. We used 2 inch foam because the seat backs in the cockpit are somewhat short. The 2 inch was perfect.

Foam Factory inc. (568-627-3626)http://www.thefoamfactory.com/outdoorfoam/outdoorfoam.html

had the best prices on Dryfast foam. At the time it was $84.68 for 2 pieces 2x16x76. They will cut to your order. The foam is quick drying and has a nice firm feel under ones butt. Not too soft and not too hard. I used an electric carving knife from Walmart to cut it. That worked out great! Just practice keeping it straight up and down. I had the Admiral helping me.

We made our own piping cut on the bias from the same marine sunbrella as the seats. That was the cheapest way out. Piping also can get pricy.

For the sheet bag I doubled up the fabric on the back panel and the two front panels on the pockets. the side panels are single layer sunbrella with phifertex bottoms curving around the bottom to about 1-2 inches up the sides. Nice for drainage. I made the pockets separate like making a cushion without a bottom and then sewed them to the back panel finally I stitched on a finished soft edging/binding to hide all the rough edges around the outside. Also used this edging around the cut edge of the phiphertex side panels. The top of the back panel didn't need a finishing edge as it was where the fabric was folded to double its thickness, no cut edge. The piping also gives it a lot of support to keep its shape.

I bought the sunbrella, zippers, threads and phiphertex from Sailrite and the soft binding from Joane's.

If you need any more info just PM me, be glad to help. Also Sailrite has a huge collection of free videos on all sorts of projects including cushions.

jimmyb

[Jon Holthaus]

Thanks for the response Jimmy! Sounds well thought out, you put a lot of work into it and did a great job pricing it out. I really like that sheet bag, I'll have to replicate.

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