Sunbrella boat cover and soaking wet carpet
by Jimmy
Seeking your advice: Our boat is always tied up at the dock, 24/7, with the mooring cover on and snapped in place. And the carpet inside is always soaking wet.
My father blamed the old boat cover losing its water repellancy. But despite a brand new custom sunbrella cover being on the boat and the boat being on land with the new cover on it for 2 weeks before it could be put back at a dock, the carpet is still wet, soaking wet in the back. This is a Godfrey Hurricane deck boat 21'8''
What causes this wet condition, despite the new cover with 4 pole vent II's? And what can we do about it?
This is a good question. In fact I may post this on the website.
Let's start with what Sunbrella isn't
Sunbrella is not really considered a waterproof fabric. It is water resistant. It starts out very very water resistant and with age becomes less so. Just age can effect it, but so can cleaning products and scrubbing. So that being said, at some point, especially once you are seeing water inside the boat, it may be time to clean and re-water proof the cover. A have a lot more about that on the website. You can also look at the cover when it is wet and rainy and see if the cover looks as though it is wet and absorbing water or is the water beading and rolling off.
Next I would suggest you stand under an umbrella in the rain and watch how the water is running off your cover. Notice things such as, the cutouts for the legs of the bimini and other areas where water may be creeping in. If that's the case, have a fabricator sew a boot around the opening. Look at other areas where water might be creeping in around poorly designed areas in either the cover or the fiberglass and solve those problems.
Get under the cover in a rain and see where the water is creeping in by sitting on the floor. Kind of funny, but a great advantage point for being a water detective.
Hope this helps.
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