By Mary Jo Morris Market conditions have been tough the past few years, prompting boat owners to search for the best value for their money. “The consumer today is not just picking up the phone and calling one person, they’re going to call three,” says Peter Douglas, sales manager, Recasens USA. Douglas advises fabricators to [...]

By Mary Jo Morris Two fabrics that are used frequently in exterior marine applications are acrylic and polyester. The list below describes their characteristics. The list is not exhaustive and additional information can be found on manufacturers’ websites, as well as in resources from the Marine Fabricators Association. Distributors are a good source for information [...]

By Shelby Gonzalez Cowhide Hair-on cowhide lends a frontier element to upholstery work. When working with hair-on hide, positioning the hide so the “grain” of the hair lays the way you want can be a challenge. Photo: M. Carlin, Luxe Media Group/Sunrise Yachts. Rattlesnake The pattern of Valtekz Rattlesnake repeats every 6 inches horizontally and [...]

By Shelby Gonzalez The most lucrative customer base for exotic hides in marine applications is, of course, high-end clients, who can afford not to fret about durability and are less likely to be affected by the vagaries of the economy. That said, current trends in exotic hides do seem to reflect the country’s economic woes. [...]

by Holly O’Dell Many boat projects these days call for hybrid enclosures—a mix of soft vinyl and semi-rigid materials. “We adapt semi-rigid windows to smaller boats when we can, but there has to be room to slide or flip them open,” says Chris Patterson of Weaver Canvas. “What we do is put the semi-rigid product [...]

By Sigrid Tornquist You can’t work on improving customer communication and efficiencies if you don’t get the customer’s business in the first place. Jeff Viehmeyer, owner of Alameda Canvas & Coverings, pays particular attention to formatting quotes to secure jobs from government agencies, shipping companies and cruise lines. “They want to see something that’s precise [...]

By Tom Hunter, MFC All design starts with three basic geometric shapes: the simple but strong low-volume triangle, the weak high-volume square, and the strongest middle-volume circle. The square shape will provide the area needed under the top, but is the weakest of the three basic shapes, so we need to keep the straight lengths [...]

By Andrea Swensson Thread may seem like a minute detail when considering an overall marine fabrication project, but the type of thread used can make or break the overall success of a boat cover, bimini or similar end product. Though cotton thread was once commonly used to sew outdoor products, developments in chemical technology have [...]

It seems whatever Katie Bradford, IFM, MFC, of Custom Marine Canvas in Noank, Conn., is involved in, there’s always some connection to the sea. When she isn’t working on fabricating projects for someone else’s boat, she’s either sailing on one of her own vessels, volunteering for the New London Community Boating nonprofit organization she founded [...]

Should you be using social media? Maybe. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and their ilk are spreading as a means of business communication. Such media let you communicate quickly with customers and prospects. If you’re offering a discount, you can send the offer to hundreds or thousands of prospects with one click. Prospects away from their computers [...]