My love affair with cheap, soft, user-friendly boat stuff--PVC cowls, vinyl cloth, polyurethane hoses--starts as glossy as a wedding on the Hallmark Channel, only to be followed by steady disillusionment and eventual disappointment. You could say expectation is too high, and that we all must settle for the best we can find in life. Yeah, but come on. Can't you just paint them? No relationship is beyond hope.
Take my Lewmar winch handle pockets, those three $20 holsters of soft PVC so necessary for an ergonomically successful cockpit. Why, I bought new ones not three years ago and now they're stained with mildew and their formerly shiny surfaces pitted by UV. This despite periodical scrubbing with detergents, which seems to make the matter worse.
This week I spray-painted them with Rustoleum High Performance Enamel and now they look better than new. How long will the facelift last? I don't know, but there's no apparent chipping or lack of adhesion for $10 and 10 minutes time. [For the answer to "how long," see comments]
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The mildew issue seems to cross boundaries. I think my West Marine drinking-water hose is made of polyurethane. In a few years it has gone from white and shiny to sticky and very dirty indeed (a widespread complaint about this product). I painted the nozzle end. By golly, seems to work fine.
Many cowl vents are made of soft PVC. The E32-3 had a single dorade cowl of a size not easily found. It was battered and disagreeably stained, with a surface as ruined by the sun as my own. I sanded it down and painted it with Interlux Brightside White delivered by a Preval sprayer. It looked new, and stayed that way for three years. When I reported this to my dermatologist he wasn't as interested as I had hoped.
Would a cowl vent made of Silicone rubber outlast one of soft PVC? Is that why they're twice as expensive? The real solution is stainless steel cowls from Vetus. They're about $300 each, but money only solves just about everything.
For example, the popular Lifesling on the stern rail. Its cover is made, I think, of PVC cloth, with a high susceptibility to mildew. As usual, frequent cleaning with detergent seems to make the situation worse. It's said that dirt attracts the ubiquitous black mold that grows even in dry, sunny SoCal. But there is no dirt on mine. Am I now to make a cover for the cover?
Vinyl in sun seems to trade all its excellent properties for a proclivity to turning mottled black. I keep my cockpit cushions below, like everybody else, but still -- a few days outside and mold appears. They're made of marine-grade vinyl cloth, which is supposed to differ from bar-stool Naugahyde by the addition of UV protection. OK, if Sailrite says so.
I've never solved the vinyl problem. I put all new Vinyl seats on my former skiff, a handy little boat that with a 175 HP outboard would go 30 miles an hour if your kidneys could take it. Those seats required constant attention with a sponge and spray bottle of Fantastic. Drove me nuts, or at least shortened the journey there.
To some extent these issues with PVC, polyurethane and vinyl are a function of the lack of winter here in Los Angeles, and the 12-month sailing season. We don't haul, and a full-boat cover is impractical. I am told the issue is worse in the Northwest, and it certainly was memorable in Annapolis. UV is powerful and mold and mildew will outlive us all, but the virtues of vinyl far exceed its vulnerability.
As for PVC and poly, sometimes the answer is a facelift in a spray can.
Take my Lewmar winch handle pockets, those three $20 holsters of soft PVC so necessary for an ergonomically successful cockpit. Why, I bought new ones not three years ago and now they're stained with mildew and their formerly shiny surfaces pitted by UV. This despite periodical scrubbing with detergents, which seems to make the matter worse.
This week I spray-painted them with Rustoleum High Performance Enamel and now they look better than new. How long will the facelift last? I don't know, but there's no apparent chipping or lack of adhesion for $10 and 10 minutes time. [For the answer to "how long," see comments]
The mildew issue seems to cross boundaries. I think my West Marine drinking-water hose is made of polyurethane. In a few years it has gone from white and shiny to sticky and very dirty indeed (a widespread complaint about this product). I painted the nozzle end. By golly, seems to work fine.
Many cowl vents are made of soft PVC. The E32-3 had a single dorade cowl of a size not easily found. It was battered and disagreeably stained, with a surface as ruined by the sun as my own. I sanded it down and painted it with Interlux Brightside White delivered by a Preval sprayer. It looked new, and stayed that way for three years. When I reported this to my dermatologist he wasn't as interested as I had hoped.
Would a cowl vent made of Silicone rubber outlast one of soft PVC? Is that why they're twice as expensive? The real solution is stainless steel cowls from Vetus. They're about $300 each, but money only solves just about everything.
For example, the popular Lifesling on the stern rail. Its cover is made, I think, of PVC cloth, with a high susceptibility to mildew. As usual, frequent cleaning with detergent seems to make the situation worse. It's said that dirt attracts the ubiquitous black mold that grows even in dry, sunny SoCal. But there is no dirt on mine. Am I now to make a cover for the cover?
Vinyl in sun seems to trade all its excellent properties for a proclivity to turning mottled black. I keep my cockpit cushions below, like everybody else, but still -- a few days outside and mold appears. They're made of marine-grade vinyl cloth, which is supposed to differ from bar-stool Naugahyde by the addition of UV protection. OK, if Sailrite says so.
I've never solved the vinyl problem. I put all new Vinyl seats on my former skiff, a handy little boat that with a 175 HP outboard would go 30 miles an hour if your kidneys could take it. Those seats required constant attention with a sponge and spray bottle of Fantastic. Drove me nuts, or at least shortened the journey there.
To some extent these issues with PVC, polyurethane and vinyl are a function of the lack of winter here in Los Angeles, and the 12-month sailing season. We don't haul, and a full-boat cover is impractical. I am told the issue is worse in the Northwest, and it certainly was memorable in Annapolis. UV is powerful and mold and mildew will outlive us all, but the virtues of vinyl far exceed its vulnerability.
As for PVC and poly, sometimes the answer is a facelift in a spray can.
