No expense has been spared on our girl this winter. We've treated her to new window sunshades - the old fabric ones have done very well however there's only so many 'patches' and 'restitching' old fabric (and us) can take!

A huge decision had to be made with regards to the colour so after a lot of pondering and debating we've settled on 'grey' fabrics given that her non-slip on the deck and stripes along her hull are grey. Grey will eventually replace the 'Navy' cockpit canopy, bimini, drop panel, hatch covers etc some of which are on borrowed time.

Flirtie can become uncomfortably hot in the deck saloon even in spring without fitted sunshades. We were planning on replacing our existing ones with a similar fabric however we ideally wanted some kind of fabric that would allow us to 'see' out especially whilst at anchor, to keep a certain amount of heat out and provide a degree of privacy. We thought we were asking for the impossible until we met several cruisers who had converted over to a vinyl mesh, namely Phifertex and were singing its praises. Based on these recommendations, our decision was made.

Phifertex Vinyl Mesh is a woven vinyl-coated polyester fabric. It has excellent dimensional stability and flexibility. It doesn't fray so was surprisingly easy to cut, fold and sew with Gore Tenara long life thread which is reported to outlive the fabric so no more restitching from here on in we hope! :-)

Our new covers were fitted a couple of weeks ago and it has to be said that already we've noticed an immediate difference to the temperature inside the cabin - so far so good. We hope that it remains a few degrees cooler in the height of summer too!

As for privacy, throughout the day we are able to 'see' out whilst from the outside it's virtually impossible to see in but at night from outside you can see in so another 'snap-on' sunshade made of sunbrella fabric will eventually be made, specifically for use at night!


looking out from inside the cabin