June 25, 2003
THE APRIL FOOL'S AWNING

One of the projects on our list of things to do in this "Year of the Boat" scheme was to make a new awning. In fact, we knew our big awning was degraded to the point that it was marginal whether it would survive the 5 months that we were off and away traveling. We just had to cross our fingers.

The awning was in a terrible state on our return - gross with black mildew and sky fallout. The whole aft section was split and the inner mesh of the fabric was sticking out through the PVC coating. But it was hanging in there! This is pretty strong material. We had bought the material in the States and made the awning in Guam before we left in 1997. Well, you might say, 6 years in the tropical sun is not bad for any awning. But in fact, our previous two awnings had lasted 10 and 11 years each.

	This photo shows how the rain-catching part of our awning works.

Awnings are essential for tropical living. The shade helps keep the whole boat cooler and provides protection from rain. We have four awnings. We have one awning that covers most of the foredeck area. It helps to funnel the breeze down through the front hatch just like a wind scoop. It covers across the other fore deck hatch too, which is right above our bed. Besides moving the air flow below, with that awning we don't have to shut the hatch lid when it rains, unless it is blowing quite hard. We have a sun awning that fits over the cockpit to use when sailing, and a rear awning - more like a curtain really - that we put up temporarily if the sun from that direction is bothersome in the cockpit. Our main awning is a big one. It stretches from the mast all the way back to the backstay, and spreads across the whole beam of the boat, with side flaps to maximize shade with low sun angle. The awning shades the entire cabin top, side decks and cockpit. A cover over the cockpit gives us an outside "living room." Even though we keep a sail cover on the mainsail, the awning gives another layer of protection to the sail. It also provides protection for sailing equipment like the traveler set up, the winches and various sheets. The only exterior varnish on SUNFLOWER lives under the big awning too. Even though I use a high UV type gloss varnish, having the awning helps cut down on the sun damage, and thus, frequent bouts of re-varnishing. I just re-varnished; it had been exactly one year since my last effort. The awning was built to be a rain catcher too. Battens run athwartship holding the awning flat like a roof. There is a 6-inch rain-catching trough (pocket) along the starboard edge. We tilt the port side of the awning up when it rains. In theory, all the rain flows across the awning, down the side flap and into the pocket. At the rear end of the pocket is a thru-hull fitting with a hose that can lead to buckets or directly into our deck fill for the water tank. In practice, any wind about 15 knots flaps the awning around enough to shake a lot of the rain off the roof before it has a chance to get into the pocket. Nevertheless, we use the awning to catch a lot of the water that goes into our tanks. We went one entire year without taking any shore side water for the tanks. Of course, it has to rain...

The key to our effective water catching is to have water proof material with no stitching holes in the top part of the awning. No holes - no leaks. Even the batten pockets are heat welded to the top. Preparing to make a new awning, we found a canvas maker in Penang who had a heat welding machine and a type of PVC cloth that we could use. Using our awning plan, the canvas man welded 4 lengths of fabric together. Now it was up to us to do the rest of the fitting, make the water catching pocket, and do the reinforcement sewing. And this is where it all started to go wrong.

We laid this gy-nourmous piece of welded material out on the floor of a building where another canvas worker has set up his shop. We've known him a good while, and he said he ALWAYS uses double sided tape to hold things together while he is sewing. Sounded OK to us, so we pasted everything together with his tape. First mistake.

I have always sewn our awnings on my Sears Kenmore regular household sewing machine. But we thought, here's this guy, he's got a big machine and the whole set up. Why not let him sew our stuff together, with us assisting. It will all get done much quicker. Second mistake.

For the past 7 years we have used a special thread made by the Gore company. (like in Gortex) It simply does not degrade in the sun like most dacron threads do. The stitching on our front awning was done in 1996 - I haven't touched it since. Ditto for life raft cover, sail cover, etc. Our big awning was falling apart because of the material, but all the sewn parts were still intact. This thread is MAGIC! So why isn't everyone using it? It costs about 4 times as much as regular thread for openers, and, it's a real bitch to sew with. And for canvas workers - where's the re-sew business?

Now, we have been making all our awnings and covers since the boat was new, twenty-seven years ago. And we know some things are more difficult than others. But the combination of the sticky tape in all the hems and reinforcements, as well as the special thread, turned into a disaster. And I'm being KIND! After 3 agonizing days of the canvas guy working more on his machine than doing any sewing, we took over and finished the rest of the stitching.

Now all there was left to do was to measure for the batten pockets and pound in the grommets. We laid the new (semi-botched) awning out on the big floor again. While Al was on his knees with our sketch plan and the tape measure, I stood back to admire the handiwork. And it hit me. The whole thing was backward! Inside out! Left to right! Totally wrong!

I won't bore you with our agonizing about what to do - or the language! The long and the short was, we had to cut off the sideflaps, and reverse the sides. Next trip to Penang (we were both doing dental work there) the awning went back to the welding machine.The flaps were reattached to the opposite sides, and the batten pockets were welded in place. It looks all right. I guess we're really the only ones who notice all the irregularities. And it does work - gives us the shade and catches rain for us like it's supposed to.

Just remind me - next time - never start a sewing project on April 1st!