Re-upholstery Job on Cruisers Yacht 338 Bowrider

[tpenfield]

boats are usually hand-patterned and hand sewn. the foam is usually hand cut. not uncommon to have two different seats different dimensions.

the anal-retentive perfectionist in me goes into convulsions nearly daily because of that exact issue.

Yes, to your point - boat seats are semi-automated at best. The backings are usually cut out on CNC and even the vinyl panels, but the rest is hand made. Take the photo below for example. This is one of the bow seating backrests for my boat. I have highlighted the screw holes holding the inset piece to the main backboard. If they were machine drilled, they'd probably be symmetrical, as is the cushion itself. Yet, they are anything but symmetrical, and the one to the right most in the picture almost misses the cushion that it is supposed to be holding. Surely hand drilled at point of assembly.
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[tpenfield]

And guess where the right-most screw ended up in the cushion it was supposed to be supporting . . .
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Yes, a solid 1/8" to spare (from the edge). One would think that since the backboard itself was routed on a machine, they could have drilled a few pilot wholes in the 'preferred' places . . .

@Scott Danforth - It seems like Cruisers Yachts has both in-house and outsourced manufacturing for the seating. The helm seats and perhaps many other of the seating pieces of my boat were made at a local upholstery manufacturing company (Knights in Marinette, WI). The CY Customer Support reached out to them regarding how the helm seats were assembled.

 

[Scott Danforth]

And guess where the right-most screw ended up in the cushion it was supposed to be supporting . . .
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View attachment 356173
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Yes, a solid 1/8" to spare (from the edge). One would think that since the backboard itself was routed on a machine, they could have drilled a few pilot wholes in the 'preferred' places . . .

@Scott Danforth - It seems like Cruisers Yachts has both in-house and outsourced manufacturing for the seating. The helm seats and perhaps many other of the seating pieces of my boat were made at a local upholstery manufacturing company (Knights in Marinette, WI). The CY Customer Support reached out to them regarding how the helm seats were assembled.

the former Garelick facility in Largo used to make them too.

 

[tpenfield]

One of the things that I am doing on the re-make is adhering a layer of 'drop cloth' plastic over the foam. The OEM seats have the typical very thin plastic sheeting (tissue paper-like) that is used to help the vinyl skin orient itself during installation. I am using a plastic sheeting that is about twice as thick (0.7 mil) and with contact adhesive. This should act not only to help the vinyl during installation, but should provide some abrasion resistance to the foam itself.
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At least that is my theory . . . It may also provide some moisture protection, but not 100% sure that it would.

 

[Scott Danforth]

agreed that silk sheet is very, very thin

that backrest looks like it doesnt have any pulls

 

[tpenfield]

I made another red piece today - the inset piece to the bow rear backrest. The remainder of the backrest will have to wait for another day as I am quitting for now while I'm ahead.

I cleaned up my work area a bit, since I've been at this project for about 2-3 months. I did come across the 'reject' pile. 3 skins made and soon to be forgotten .



(knock on wood), since I figured out how to sew the curved shapes properly, I haven't boggered a piece of vinyl since.

 

[tpenfield]

that backrest looks like it doesn't have any pulls

'pulls' as in tack strips? The seat bases had them where the white met the gray. The backrest don't have them and don't really need them, based of their design. IIRC, my Formula had tack strips on some of the backrests, as well as all of the seat bases.

 

[tpenfield]

Here is my day's work . . .

This piece is the red insert to the bow forward facing backrest. It does not get a logo, same as the forward facing stern seat backrest.

For such a small piece, it took a long time to make. . . about 7 hours.
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The panels that make it up are a bit funky looking . . .
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I managed to sew these odd shapes free-hand as I'm getting better at sewing the curved shapes. I'm also spending more time figuring out how the skin got sewn together in the first place, so I can sew the new skin in a proper sequence. Not sure I was doing that on the earlier pieces I made.

Here is the inset placed into the main portion of the backrest. The skin for that will have to wait until next time.
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Now you might wonder why the inset piece has the notch in it . . . I believe it is there for ease of access to the beer holders, which are right behind this backrest.

 

[alldodge]

Must have easy access to beer, its a beer/boat law I'm sure

 

[tpenfield]

Must have easy access to beer, its a beer/boat law I'm sure

Yes, very considerate of the Design Department at CY . . .

 

[Scott Danforth]

Yes, very considerate of the Design Department at CY . . .

View attachment 356235

There are 11 beer holders shown, my guess at least 2 not shown.....

You dont have enough cooler space

 

[tpenfield]

Update . . .

I've been away from the upholstery for about a week, but now back at it.
This is the complete 'beer access' backrest.
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This one seem to take forever but at least it is done.

I did not realize how 'non-symentrical this backrest is until I got it finished.

I'm getting down there on the pieces remaining.

- Stern/port settee backrest
- Bow side cushions (2)
- Helm seats (2)

I took one of the helm seats apart . . . what a project that was. Quite elaborate and a definite sequence of how things need to go back together.

 

[Scott Danforth]

I did not realize how 'non-symentrical this backrest is until I got it finished.

thats the part of the product that drives the OCD engineer in me absolutely nuts

 

[tpenfield]

That's the part of the product that drives the OCD engineer in me absolutely nuts.

Yes, the shape of it is because the companion seat right next to it needs to mate up with it. . . . but that piece IS symmetrical
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[alldodge]

Great work

 

[tpenfield]

Here is my days work . . .
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I added a little bit of color to the endcaps. This piece, which is the port settee backrest in the main cockpit, put up quite a fight for a while. The part with the Red endcap and the white vinyl tucked under got all messed up . . . I had to re-stitch it.

Once again . . . the screw holes holding the gray/black trim piece were all at the outer 1/8" or so . . . I re-drilled a few to get them more inboard on the trim piece.

I am now into pieces that are mostly white, not much gray.

 

[tpenfield]

Quick update. . .

I'm working on the bow stbd side cushion. It has a bunch of French Seams.
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I have gone through a few iterations of re-engineering my appraoch to french seams. I have settled on an approach where I use spray adhesive to fold the two mating seam allowances over and then a bit more adhesive to apply the backing.
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Then I do the top-stitching in 2 passes with the guide attachment.

One thing about this upholstery is that the mix and arrangement of fabrics makes for some tricky alignment. An example of it is below . . .
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Getting the white & black to align at the crossing of the seams took quite a while. Fortunately, it worked out.

These certainly are not your Grandfather's boat seats

 

[southkogs]

Great work. Really looks impressive.

 

[tpenfield]

Here is my Sunday's work . . . finished up this AM. This piece goes on the starboard bow side.
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I added the RED racing stripe to the original pattern, as I believe it will make the boat go faster .

I thought this piece would be easy, but it wasn't in total it took about 14 hours, which is about twice what I expected

The french seams really add time to the process. There is a similar piece that goes on the port side, which is up next (in about 2 weeks time, since I'll be away for a while).

 

[Buzzsaw420]

Outstanding job, second to none.