With so many “soft”ware projects to complete on Vamos!, we decided (read: wife campaigned for) on the need for the purchase of an industrial sewing machine. Of course, all sailboat sewing searches lead to Sailrite videos and this amazing tool coupled with the in-depth tutorials was a combination too powerful to resist. Sarah, known on EY.o as StichySailor, chose the Ultrafeed LSZ-1 machine and went through a voyage of personal enrichment. While she has years of quilting experience, the world of upholstery and heavy canvas-work is a whole new animal and the domestic machine just wasn’t going to cut it. The unboxing of this machine was a dream and this tool is a must-have to get truly professional-looking results.
Most of the winter was spent picking out and patterning interior cushions and theme, but that will be held for a later post when we can reveal before and after photos. We are waiting to install the interior project until cold weather and smell abatement can be completed. Hey, fabric and new foam throughout is really expensive and we aren’t going to chance it with a “too early installation.”
The Before
We knew that this old boat would respond to just about any attention we gave to her and the exterior canvas was an easy early win. We decided that this boat needed a cohesive theme and that she had too many party colors going on. We loved the painted dark blue cove stripe and the red waterline, but found that the ‘turquoise” stack pack chosen by the prior owner was not our aesthetic. We have chosen the standard Sunbrella Navy for the unifying exterior canvas - a nice neutral that really shows well against the white fiberglass and keeps the blue theme for Ericson.
Procrastinating on the Bimini
So the very first thing we ordered was a Bimini kit, which for some reason comes with 9 yards of fabric! Since this is not quite the easiest project to start with, Sarah thought it would be good to get to know her new machine and fabricate some of the smaller items first with all this extra fabric that we got.We have started to systematically cover anything that can hold canvas. This started with new cover for the teak handrail and boxed hatch covers….
the obligatory internal elastic winch covers…..
a fastener for the swimladder—a *serious flex* here since it was previously held in place with one of those bungy cords that lost its elastic about the same time that disco went out of fashion (some say it never went out of fashion…)
a new companionway cover…
With all the success to date, she tackled the granddaddy of patterning challenges and the first time using Dura-Skrim… a brand new binnicle cover!
Cockpit Cushions
After this, a set of cockpit cushions were crafted. We had to wait on the correct foam to get into the local “foam guys” but after that Sarah made some pretty quick work on them. I think the white piping around them really take it up a notch.
And moreover, they fit perfectly!
We still have some work to do on installing some additional snaps to secure them into the cockpit when underway but I’m going to wait on drilling new holes in the fiberglass until spring.
The Stackpack
The lazy jacks were in great condition but the stack pack had a little room for improvement and since [Sailrite](https://sailrite.com) sent us an enormous amount of fabric fro the Bimini top, we had enough to redo this as well. This was *the most challenging* component to fabricate and I fully understand why it is that the local canvas place quoted $110/foot to us. That being said, Sarah harvested a lot of the internal components such as the internal baton’s and associated sleeves (there is literally no way these batons are coming out of this cover given the internal pocket closing setup!)
Then, with the strict supervision of Mr. Kittyman, she set to recreating a new version of it. Now we need to find an Ericson logo for it!
The sails are still being washed and mended so it is pretty empty at the moment, but overall the revision of the stack pack looks AWESOME!
The After
Someone is pretty pleased with herself! And rightly so given how awesome all of these projects have come out. Ironically, the very first thing we started on, the Bimini, has yet to be started! I suppose that is the way of things and it will come in its own time. I'm just really glad to have had all these external canvas pieces made and put in place for the winter weather the past few months.
Conclusion
The old girl (the boat, not the wife) has some new clothes that took her through the winter weather in a bit more comfort and style. This mostly covers all the external soft materials and she is now working on the interior components by replacing all the foam and cushions. We’ve got a nice fabric and can’t wait until we can put them all in and show them off. However, that will have to wait until I get the bilge pump fixed and replace all the tubing in the black water system so we can get that smell out of the interior before we put in the new stuff. Now that it is warming up a bit (that is the excuse I've been using about this, "you know how hard it is to put those hoses on in cold weather..." wink wink, nudge nudge), I need to step up get that done in preparation for the warm spring weather we are just now starting to get in Virginia.Exciting times.
