A dinghy CHAPS is a fabric cover that protects the inflatable tubes from harmful UV rays and chafe from lines and harbour walls etc. Our friends Chris and Carolyn off catamaran 'Splice' asked if we'd like the challenge of making them a chaps for their new dinghy 'FID' which was an opportunity and experience not to be missed given that we'd have all winter to complete the project before their return in mid-April.

It must be said that this project qualifies as our biggest sewing project yet. It was certainly a challenge and took a lot longer than we anticipated but here it is, our custom made dinghy chaps... not too shabby we feel and thankfully our friends off catamaran 'Splice' love it, Phew! "www.sailblogs.com/member/splice", blog entitled 'new season, new clothes'.


the finished chaps


the finished chaps

The project involved a lot of patience as there's no pattern, it's hard to fit canvas perfectly over rounded tubes and this particular dinghy had lots of handles, valves etc, and each one needing to be reinforced by a custom-cut vinyl edge on both the underside and outside of sunbrella fabric.

Many cruisers have made dinghy chaps before so there was loads of information available online all offering advice and recommendations but we found www.sailrite.com, step-by-step video an invaluable source, hence FID's new coat was based on this.

A word of warning though... unless you're working indoors the weather can hinder progress as windless days are necessary for accurate patterning and cutting out and unless you can work from a huge table, many hours are spent on hands and knees. You can also expect to get the odd blister from cutting out all of those cut-outs!

We certainly put the sailrite sewing machine through its paces, especially as each panel was sewn together as it became pretty bulky and much more difficult to work with.

Apart from the points above, the video is excellent and we would certainly recommend it should anyone want to make their own dinghy chaps. Well done sailrite and thank you!

A few other images showing us busy at work!


patterning the first panel, bow section using clear plastic sheeting


transferring a side panel pattern to sunbrella fabric


cutting out a panel using a hot-knife without accidentally burning the pontoon!


first fitting, sections cut out and placed over dinghy


a side panel with vinyl cut outs and tie down attachments sewn in


tie-downs