A mooring cover for The Drascombe, Tenara thread

Mooring cover for our Drascombe Longboat

Having met with some success in my new hobby of canvasworking, I decided to give my father the Christmas gift of a new mooring cover for his Drascombe Longboat.  Since the cover will be out in the brutal Florida sun most of the year, I chose Tenara thread, which is made of teflon.  My other projects have used v69 polyester thread which is strong and resists UV light more than most threads, but it still degrades over time and can loose up to half of its strength after a year in the sun.  Tenara on the other hand doesn't degrade at all.

Materials:

• Odessy III polyester outdoor fabric 
• 1/4" Fiberglass spreader poles 
• Tenara Thread  

Tenara is so slippery that both my sewing machine and my mother's couldn't get the top thread  tension tight enough.

I spent hours trying to figure out how to increase the top thread tension and finally got fairly repeatable results by putting the thread under a gum eraser that was rubber banded to the sewing arm.

Extra friction mechanism:
rubber band and gum eraser

Mama's sewing machine

My sewing machine, spool holder - prevents twist

Corner fasteners

Design features:

• laced front panels
• webbing reinforced spine
• two 1/4" fiberglass hoops

At the slip

The cover is a success.  It keeps the rain in the scuppers where it belongs and protects the mizzen sail, mainsail and other cockpit items from sun and rain.