Author Archives: Gail

And After All That …

As I showed in a previous post, I have looked at a lot of sampl fabrics, many of which were expensive. My first choice would have been £360 for what I need.

It occurred to me that I should go and have a look at Trago in Falmouth (their smallest store and nearest to us) to see if they had any outdoor fabric. Trago Mills, if you don’t know, is a discount store well known in Cornwall & South Devon. It has a reputation for “piling it high and selling it cheap”! The original store was an abandoned gunpowder factory called Trago Mill near Liskeard.

We were in the Falmouth store on a Friday. Sale days are a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in January when there is an additional 15% off. Turns out as well as the expected large choice of PVC fabrics, those used for tablecloths, they had a handful of PU coated fabrics including a couple of William Morris Prints at £8.49sqm. On the Tuesday during Twixmas we headed off to Trago Liskeard as they would have more choice. They did, but not the William Morris pattern I was hoping for – the one on the far right in the photo below; Willow Bough Leaves in Linen.

Fabric Swatches

After a short discussion, we settled on – dah, dah, …… plain beige at £3.31 a metre. We decided that beige is less likely to show salt marks than navy (which would have been my first choice), is a lighter colour for the small space and I can use any any pattern/colour for cushions/pillows. At this bargain price I ordered 2 metres more than I need. If I make a mistake, I’ll have some extra and won’t feel too bad if my first attempt isn’t very good.

I’d already purchased the foam locally for the smallest and easiest shaped cushion. I’ve made the cover which wasn’t without its stress as I tried to sew between the nylon teeth on a large zip but misjudged it, broke the needle, the machine had a meltdown and stopped working. We took it apart, gave it a good clean, which was well needed, Neil had a tinker and we got it working again.

I’d say that the final result is OK – the hardest part was wrestling in the foam which is 4″ thick.

Berth Link Cushion – Beige

In the end, I have ordered the rest of the foam required from an on-line provider. Whilst I would have liked to support a local company, the quote I had was over £150 more expensive. A cost I couldn’t justify. That is a big chunk of money to be used towards a new toilet.

We are planning to get the boat on the water in Feb or March and in Falmouth Marina. The marina is costly compared to the swinging mooring we were looking at. Neil did a pro’s & cons list. The only con for the marina was the price with lots of good reasons why it would work for us. We decided the pro’s outweighs the price difference which includes giving us access to the boat for sailing all year around instead of only 5 months on the mooring.

Falmouth Area

The point of getting the boat is to get on the water. A lot of the jobs that were on the list are ‘wants’ not ‘needs’ and in order to get sailing asap, we are focusing on the ‘needs’. For example, we won’t be re-painting the hull this season. Neil is concentrating on the essential jobs to get us on the water.

I can’t say I’m looking forward to making the 2 large berth cushions. They are 2m long, need shaping to the angle of the cabin sides as well as the shaping around the mast and knowing how difficult it was to get a small rectangle into the cover I can’t see that being any easier. I’ll give it a good go though and then look forward to covering up my mistakes with a throw!