canoe cover??

[Mark Adams]

Hi All,

I am looking for a good cover for my Willits canoes. Peter Mueller pointed me towards one by the Adirondack Guideboat. Co. It looks to just cover the open portion. I am looking for something like a cacoon that encloses the entire canoe. Does anyone know where I can get something like this? I am no longer using my roof racks after nearly losing a canoe off the top of the car on the interstate in Oakland. I have a canoe trailer, and am concerned about debris and water coming up off the wheels of the truck and trailer.


Thanks!

Mark

 

[Michael Grace]

Hi Mark,

I've had full covers custom-made of Sunbrella, but I don't know if this will fit your time constraints for going to get the new Willits. I've had some made by Heather McNie in Sydenham, ON, and others made by Custom Canvas of Charleston in Charleston, SC. Heather's have a full-length zipper along one gunwale, and I've been very happy with them. But given the distance and potential cross-border issues, I tried Custom Canvas. They were willing to work with me to produce just what I wanted. They made them with both full length velcro and full-length zipper. I recommend her each of these makers.

Having custom covers made, it is critical to take accurate measurements of the canoe (the maker will tell you what is needed). Still, I had fit problems with a cover from each of these makers BUT each of them was extremely helpful in altering the covers. Now they fit like gloves. You may know this, but red colors are notorious for fading. See attached image- the flap inside the cover is still nice and red, but the outside has faded to a rather unexciting pink...

Here are web sites for each of these makers:

http://www.customcanvasofcharleston.com
http://users.openface.ca/~paddle/heather.html

Michael

 

[Giiwedin]

The Bag Lady

Sue Audette can make you a fine custom canoe cover. You send her measurements and bow/stern profiles, and she delivers a tight-fitting cover suitable both for storage and transportation.

http://www.waterworkscanoe.com/the_bag_lady.htm

 

[thirsty]

Mark,

I own several "Bag Lady" covers, a couple are 8-9 years old and all in great shape and great fit. The Bag Lady, aka Susan T. Audette, is also the author of, 'The Old Town Canoe Company, Our First Hundred Years'. I would very highly recommend talking to her about your needs in a cover.

Dave Davidson

 

[Michael Grace]

I contacted Sue first, but at least at that time she did not make covers that completely enclosed the canoe. Has this changed?

Mark originally wrote "I am looking for something like a cacoon that encloses the entire canoe."

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

Michael, FYI, that red cover in the photo is not made of Sunbrella (wrong weave, wrong surface texture). It's most likely nylon duck and the fading is more than skin deep. Some red cover fabrics do fade badly in the sun, but in this case it's likely a combination of both color fade and UV damage to the yarns themselves because nylon won't take anywhere near the amount of UV that acrylic or polyester fabrics will. I would suggest that you pick up a trigger-spray bottle of "303 Fabric Guard" and spray it at least once a year to help give it some UV protection and extend it's life as long as possible. The UV absorbers work by converting UV radiation to heat and allowing the heat to dissipate into the atmosphere. However, in doing so, they get used-up and need to be renewed periodically by a fresh application.

If you don't want to go all the way up to the 11 oz. weight of Sunbrella for future covers (which is going to make a pretty stiff canoe cover, at least for a while until it softens-up) you might want to try Oddysey III. It's a polyester cover cloth about the same weight as nylon duck but it has much better UV resistance than nylon (similar to Sunbrella), a certain amount of breathability while maintaining rain protection (like Sunbrella) and polyesters (Odyssey) resist abrasion better than Sunbrella (acrylic) does.