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Well Faithful, yesterday I gave my 1972 B31 FBC Another Joy a deep spring cleaning. She stays in the water all year at my private dock, outdoors. She's partially shaded by a big short leaf pine tree, but she gets pretty dirty from lawn mowing dust and the ever-present mildew.

AJ has a Pipewelder's half tower with a full enclosure and a cockpit sun shade that was made from conventional material - Sunbrella and clear vinyl. The sun here would eat the damn stuff up in 3 years, and the 4th year it was all held together with safety pins. About 10 years ago, with the able help of the Faithful here, I launched into a crusade to do it better. The result was the fabric used was Stamoid in white, a very supple material made in Switzerland. Cap.t Patrick at the time had an awning made of the stuff that had withstood the Fla. sun for 10 years. We all know the weak link in boat fabric is the stitching - usually mono or polymer and the sun and any hint of bleach eats it up and it fails.

I decided to use Gore-Tex thread. It has its own name brand and my canvas guy says its a bitch to work with. I also used StrataGalss for the clear areas, and Delfin YKK spiral zippers.

Yesterday as I was deep cleaning the boat some of the Stamoid had nasty black mildew stains on it. I did what I do at least twice a year - break out the straight Clorox and a soft brush. First wet the fabric, then brsh it with the 100% clorox and let it sit for about 90 seconds, the flush well with water. This gets ALL the mildew off, and out of the pores of the Stamoid. Normally this would kill your fabric and especially the stitching but does not affect the Stamoid and Gore Tex at all. My helm chair, FB jump seats, and cockpit sun shade are made of the same fabric, and the straight clorox goes on them too. Makes it all look like new, bright white with zero spots, and no damage.

So we are now talking at least 10 years this suite of fabric has been on the boat, outdoors, in a very harsh climate with zero degrade. Amazing. I would have gone through at least 3, maybe 4 sets of Sunbrella by now. My cost for the Stamoid, etc. suite was about 5K vs. about half that for the cheap crap. Was it worth it? Yup, in spades.

And also, the boat was painted with Imron 5000 in 2000, parts of the paint touched up in 06 after Katrina damage, and it still looks like new too. And has never had any wax on the paint, just ReJex on the transom.

So if any of you are thinking about new canvas, I highly recc the Stamoid & GoreTex. The Strataglass has also held up perfectly.

UV

I had a different experience with the stamoid. My top started to get brittle about two yrs ago. Now it's to the point where the top layer is flaking off and the fabric matrix is exposed. I'm not happy with the breakdown of my top after 7years but when I spoke with the Stamoid rep his first question was how close I was to an airport. His take on it was the industrial pollutants can destroy the plasticizes in the Stamoid, and he then offered to send me replacement fabric.
I was real happy with the top up until it failed and even last year when it looked like crap it was still waterproof but I'll be going back to sunbrella for the next top. Side panels are still perfect as is the Strataglass and I'm guessing the particulates settling on the top were the killer. More frequent washing would have helped but the bigger question I have is what the hell is in the air around here.
Stamoid is a great product but if you're in an industrial area frequent washing is called for.

I had a bimini top made of the stuff. Restitched it twice. Still looks great. Didn't know about the Gore Tex product.

Ed - that's pretty amazing, never even thought about stuff like that. My half tower top - which is laced on - has a couple of pin holes in it which are probably fron pine cones & sticks hitting it during hurricanes, but other than that, zero stiffness or delamination. A drop of 4200 has fixed the little holes. Same for the cockpit sun shade. The boat is in a rural, fresh water area so no pollution other than a lot of pine & cypress tree pollen. I wonder if some sort of simple coating - like 3M spray waterproofing - might have prolonged yours?

The Gore Tex thread is sold under another brand name - Google up Gore Tex Thread and you will find it. It appears to be the silver bullet. Being able to periodically use 100% clorox on it is a huge deal down here. The clorox gets all the mildew out of the Stamoid fabric when nothing else will, even a strong clorox/water solution......gotta be the full strength stuff.

UV

The Gore Tex thread is Tenara.

http://www.gore.com/en_xx/products/fibe ... tdoor.html


UV

The odd part was the damage occurred during the winter when the top was stored. I don't remember any issues when I removed it and gave it it's prestorage cleaning of Dawn and clorox, but when I started to unroll it in the spring I heard a crackling sound that reminded me of Christmas wrapping paper, not good.

The tenora thread has held up beautifully and the vertical side panels are still like new.. The underside of the top is also in pristine condition. I wouldn't discourage anyone from using it. I just wanted to let you guys know of my experience. To be fair, my sunbrella sunshade is also discolored and has resisted all efforts to clean it. I'm in the flight path of a mid size airport and I also have some truck traffic and an active marina in the backyard.

Good thing my lungs aren't made of plastic