new cushions ericson 27

[daveksails]

I'm looking for a source to get my boat cushions redone. boat is located near Baltimore Yacht Club Middle river area of northern bay.Ericson 27 1977 .

thank you.
dkopp@block.com

[keelcooler]

Dave, I had all new cushions made in Baltimore by a guy named Movie. Sunbralla covering, new 5" foam and V berth insert for 700. two years ago.They are holding up well. His shop is next to the ship yard just down the street from Rusty Scupper. I just called him and he would be willing to do the same cost,443-303-1556,443-469-2255,good luck.

[ndutton]

In my opinion, Keel's upholstery guy has an incredibly good price.

4 years ago I entertained cushion quotes in Southern Cal for my Catalina 30 - new foam too - and the prices hovered around $4K, some higher. One lady wanted to charge me $75 for the quote!! I told another guy he couldn't possibly be serious with his price and he said I had no choice. I suggested in two syllables that he was full of bovine excrement, gave him 5 seconds to pack up his swatches and another 5 to get the Hell off my boat.

I finally got the cushions done at the local upholstery trade school. Total cost including a monetary gift to the class was $1500. Pictures are in my profile.

[sastanley]

That is an extremely good deal, keelcooler. I used to work in a canvas shop and I was amazed at the cost for interior cushions. I was usually the 'foam cutter' guy, but sometimes I got to do some sewing on new products too...mostly those with long straight edges and simple angles.

For those of you using Sunbrella, how do you like it as an interior fabric? Is this the same acrylic we all use for sailcovers/biminis, etc, or am I out of the loop on what Sunbrella offers these days??

[agraziano23]

Dave, I had all new cushions made in Baltimore by a guy named Movie. Sunbralla covering, new 5" foam and V berth insert for 700. two years ago.They are holding up well. His shop is next to the ship yard just down the street from Rusty Scupper. I just called him and he would be willing to do the same cost,443-303-1556,443-469-2255,good luck.

I too I'm looking for cushions, I have a question, Is 5" the normal height of the original foam? mine look skinnier. what kind of foam is it? also did you have the seat backs done as well? the price may worth for me to drive 5hrs to Baltimore. Do you have pictures?

[keelcooler]

Tony, 5" I went w/the upgrade, just bottoms no backs. He would need your old cushions to match. They call it cushion foam,it's not closed cell and would take on water. UPS ship in a nice boxes.

[realkingcobra]

Hi, I am also looking for the cushions and what do you mean by 5`, I need more than 5. Here in Australia Rapee cushions http://www.rushk.com.au/rapee is famous and do you think 6` cushions will solve my problem of back pain!

[ndutton]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about the back pain, maybe there's something you can do about it. Good seat geometry is a science so when replacing cushions you have an opportunity to get it right.

Bottom cushion thickness
This is what the previous post's 5" referred to, the thickness of the bottom cushion. How thick should it be? There's no stock answer. You want three things out of your bottom cushions: thickness/firmness and angle.
Thickness/Firmness - there are two considerations here. You don't want to feel the hard sub-structure when you sit. Firmness and thickness work together in this area. You also want a comfortable height from the cabin sole, like around 18".
Angle - This is complicated by seat bottoms almost always doubling for berths but in the purest sense as a seat a slight rise or roll at the inboard edge (behind the knees) makes for better comfort.

Seat backs
Seat back geometry is critical to comfort. There are two factors - thickness and angle.
Thickness - backs don't bear nearly the weight of seat bottoms so they can easily be thinner but you still don't want to feel the supporting structure. Of greater importance is the distance from the bottom of the seat back to the inboard edge of the bottom cushion (butt to knee). Something like 20" is ideal.
Angle - 10° from vertical. If your boat's rigid seat structure is not at this angle you can fine tune it by having the seat backs made in a slight wedge shape but if doing so watch the butt to knee dimension, it could be affected.

There are many other details involved but these are the core basics. A feature I like (but have not done on my current boat yet) is throw pillows made of the same fabric with zippers and stuffed with rolled or folded bath towels. Saves towel storage space.

[Al Schober]

I replaced the foam in my 1/4 berth cushions. The thickness of the foam isn't as important as the density. Put the edge of the foam against your chest and press together with the heels of your two hands. If it bottoms out, you're not going to be comfortable sleeping on it.
I took my two cushions into the shop under one arm. I had to carry them out one at a time. The shop used the same thickness foam, allowing me to retain the original fabric.
And don't worry about zippers - just sew the covers shut with a light basting stitch. If you need to remove the cover for some reason, just rip out the seam.