Boat Cover - Drascombe Lugger

24 Apr 21:

Skipper's 1980 Drascombe Lugger is due for a new cover, she made the old cover in 1996 and while it still works as a nice dust cover in the garage, it has over 5000 miles on it and is getting a little too worn for trailering. We will use it to pattern the new cover.

Among other campaigns, the cover went through Hurricane Nora in Yuma, Arizona of all places.

We had some Sunbrella slated for duty on our 13 foot catamaran, but it went into a PODS storage container for the Armada redeployment. So ONKAHYE pirated the fabric for her use. Skipper laid the Sunbrella out over ONKAHYE's old cover to do her seamstress math and determine if there was enough total fabric to craft a new Lugger cover. There was about 12 yards, 60 inches wide each, we cut the long panel in half, and seamed those 2 panels down the middle with one straight stitch and then one zig zag stitch. The bow piece will be cut from the outer edge scraps.

The aft end of the cover is draped over the transom far enough to account for seams and a drawstring pocket. A small section will be cut from the scraps and added to the bow.

Skipper adjusted the thread tension and presser foot tension on her Sailrite LSZ-1 from leather use to Sunbrella use, leather requires a lot more tension to draw the the spool and bobbin thread through evenly. The needle gets changed out also to a V18 or V20 needle, it has a different tip shape than a leather needle.

25 Apr 21:

Measuring for a drawstring pocket, we'll add 6 inches below the desired bottom edge to account for seams and the pocket.

The transom will get a couple of darts to gather the loose material.

We found the bottom of the top strake, marked that with chalk, and then marked 6 more inches past the first mark for seam and drawstring pocket allowance.

Folded the cover in half to mark the cut line.

I made little chalk marks at 6 inches and Skipper cut along behind me.

We used the scraps to make the cover long enough to cover the bow, placed the loose fit cover on the boat, marked the bow angle and stitched the bow.

Log of ONKAHYE.