Boat Canvas Options and Considerations

Our SDA 270 had her canvas replaced along with a new cockpit cover not long before we purchased her, but there were a few problems

• The boat was originally equipped with a full camper setup, but now only had the bimini top and the camper top - no sides, front visor, or rear canvas.  We wanted a full camper/enclosure so we can hang out at the slip and overnight in both humid and cooler environments, so we really wanted a full enclosure.

• It was definitely not my choice of colors

It doesn’t look awful, but my wife and I are both kind of neutral, earth-tone kind of people. I repainted most of our prior house in natural colors, and while yes, some amount of ‘sunlight’ light yellow kind of paint was involved, it was also offset with the bottom of the walls below the chair rails being the equivalent of some kind of coffee, basically neutral colors throughout the house.

My choice of colors in cars is typically a dark metallic silver as it looks nice without screaming ‘LOOK AT ME!’ Ok, I have also had a very metallic blue somewhat flashy car, but it’s not aqua! 

What I did not know, is while I’ve installed many convertible car tops myself, always with sunfast-type cloth fabrics that were not inexpensive, boat canvas puts those ‘cheap’ prices to shame! Ok, I suppose that may not be entirely true, as the size of materials needed for a full boat camper are a fair amount more than a convertible top for a 2 seat car, but - certainly not inexpensive.

More, it’s confusing as heck trying to sort what the heck the pieces even are, and what constitutes ‘all pieces.’  

What are all the parts and pieces?

I was finally able to find the following great diagram at RNR Marine showing some of the pieces, as well as scouring elsewhere to put it all together mentally.

The full enclosure most think of - two tops on two frames - the bimini and camper top, front, sides and rear canvas attaching to the rear of the camper canvas and a simpler option - bimini top and frame, no camper/second frame and top, with front, sides and a bimini aft curtain.

This threw a bit of a moneky wrench into the works. The obvious ‘full camper’ option was re-thought a handful of time, as was ‘do I add onto the existing pieces (which cost the PO > $1K already) and keep aqua, or go for it and replace it all?

The non-camper full enclosure actually doesn’t look bad, although of course, there’s less standing room available at the rear of the boat..

At first, I thought perhaps it was a bit goofy-looking, but then I looked at it again, and again. I can see this being a nice solution for someone, and not looking bad at all. As I was still waffling on extend the existing aqua-ish canvas, or full replacement…while my boat has both frames and bimini and camper top canvas, all options were open still.

Here’s a diagram and a pic of the full camper setup with both frames and tops on a 270 SDA.

Now, I will say that in the second pic, the color may just be a bit too light for my liking, and it may have been one of the reasons I kept going back to the bimini + aft curtain combo, but the difference in usable space inside the boat is fairly significant. If you position yourself at the helm with the bimini + aft curtain, you do have a little bit of room behind the helm/captain’s seat, but not much. If it’s only 2-3 of you and/or you don’t hang out in the boat at the slip much, it could be a great option.

For us, expecting to be doing numerous dinners and overnights at the slip, then heading out the next day, it felt like we wanted the extra room from the full camper. This writing in no way indicates the number of times I alternated between the two options, but yeah - we finally decided on the full camper, which of course - is also more expensive.

A complication - Arizona boats...

A funny thing was discovered along the way. While Great Lakes Boat Tops did not only Sea Ray OEM tops along with others, they even had other branches they opened in Arizona and elsewhere - near Sea Ray plants. I won’t even begin to pretend I've managed to keep it all straight in my head, but apparently at some point the AZ office and Sea Ray plants were closed, and even though it was the same company - Great Lakes today claims they do not have the ‘patterns’ for the AZ boats and possibly some other locations where Sea Rays were built. So, while for a TN plant-built SeaRay and possibly others, they will guarantee the fit; but they won’t do so for AZ boats. And of course - mine is indeed an AZ built boat. Joy.

The short version of the ‘magic serial number decoding’ is that if your Hull ID starts with SERT, SERV or SERR for a 1998 SDA (and likely others), it’s a TN boat. If it starts with SERA - it’s an AZ boat and no one will guarantee a fit.

Now, without having 100% records on the boat, but knowing the PO did have older camper full sides on the boat, I’m quite sure the boat came with full camper and canvas from Sea Ray versus some custom add-on frames. But - no one would guarantee they’d actually fit even so.

What to do?

So, I could always find a local ‘canvas guy’ or shop. Reading online did not make me warm and fuzzy inside about people missing appointments, running late, or needing to book so far out it might well become next winter before we could close the boat up and actually have a nice night overnighting with dinner and drinks before retiring to the cabin. This would allow several nice options to be introduced, such as custom vents or mesh, different Eisenglass/window material options, and possibly more color and fabric selections, but I decided early on we need to get use out of it THIS season, so I was OK with going with ‘factory replacement’ overall.

I found a few recommendations as well as via Internet searches, and started calling and emailing around. The good news is most contacts responded fairly promptly. The not-so-good news was this isn’t cheap - assume closing in on $3K for full camper canvas without frames but including the top ‘boots’ that zip around the folded up bimini and camper tops on the frames. The frames, of course, are extra.

Where to buy from

I had found a small handful of companies worth noting when shopping for canvas tops for my 1998 SDA 270.

• GreatLakesBoatTop.com - the original OEM for many, many boats out there - and pretty much where any of the OEM top replacements are likley to be coming from.

• RNR Marine - lots of boat-related goodies, including canvas, covers and more.

• SeaRayCanvas.com
  

• AmericanBoatCanvas.com
  

• Finally, I also came across CoveMarine / KevinC from ClubSeaRay.com

While I was trying to sort if it was really going to cost me $3K or more to go to an alternate color, vs more if needed new frames, or keeping the aqua, or not doing a full-length camper, I had thought when browsing through the American Boat Canvas site and videos, that maybe a ‘kit’ would be cheaper, but I was in for..

Come to find out, not unsurprisingly when you think about it, that ALL replacement canvas does not actually have the bottom snaps installed. Why? Well, because the snaps aren’t really factory-precision-laser-or-CNC-directed installs, but done at the plant, or dealers, and they’re beyond unlikely to be in identical positions, unlike, for example, allowing for some tolerance, car latches and top mounting points. So in effect, every side and aft canvas kit is already a ‘kit’ to be completed by the installer, or owner as the case may be.  So - what does this mean?