Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hello all- New poster here Just sold the old boat 1987 Aqua Patio with a 1988 75 Mariner. This was replaced with a 1996 JC 20ft Suntoon with a 2003 115 4Stroke EFI Mercury. I am excited. My problem, I need a playpen cover made. I have called several local canvas shops and have prices ranging from 600-1200 with choices of fabric being Sunbrella,Aqualan,Top Gun. One shop says they only use sunbrella, would not even think of any thing else. Of two other shops they say they would never use sunbrella largely because it is water resistant, not water proof, they say if the water pools with sunbrella it will eventually leak in. Not sure what to believe or due at this point. Please help.I will try to get pictures of this boat posted. Just want to get past this cover issue. Thank you.

I have never seen or heard any negative about Sunbrella. To me all fabrics for covers are water resistant not water proof. The cover needs to breath to keep mold and mildew down.

ditto, what LR said.

I've never heard anything "negative" about sunbrella. In fact when I was looking into haveing a custom cover made, the two local shops I checked with both told me the used sunbrella exclusively... I ended up not getting it because of the price, for a cover to completely cover my boat down to the deck all the way around would run around 2 grand... No thanks. and yeah sunbrell as well as most covers will leak if allowed to let water pool on them, Normally there's some sort of support system, be it polls or a frame of some sort that angles the cover for run off.. The only cover I've seen that was advertised as waterproof is at www.pontoonstuff.com. I believe they call it "boaters best". I'm considering one, just havent decided to pull the trigger since I already have a playpen cover Plus the boat is stored inside out of the weather.
Only reason I'm considering one is it should be much easier to throw on and off than the play pen cover.

Parasympathetic wrote:ditto, what LR said.

Yep.

I have a sunbrella cover. The cover design leaves one spot with a tendency to pool, even with all the posts in and up. I have NEVER had leakage at that point. I have had some condensation in that area (as the water above the sunbrella cools the underside of it) but no leakage. I've since added another support under that spot to prevent pooling entirely.

(Experienced the exact same condensation issue with a regular plastic tarp. That's how I recognize it as not leaking.)

Gentlemen- Thank you for the replies-Looks like everyone likes sunbrella. The lowest price I was quoted for a full cover (600.00) was actually for a sunbrella cover. Does this price seem to good to be true? Are there fabrics out there that look like sunbrella but are knock-offs of the real thing?

I got a sunbrella also. Yep in the 500 to 600 range seem about right.
doc