Need to replace the my wheel/pedestal/napod cover. on my Nonsuch 30C.
Is there a standard Nonsuch source for this? Or is it a custom canvas job?
Any pointers appreciated.
Tony Martin
Sheba, Nonsuch 30C #212
Nyack Boat Club
Nyack, NY
Hi Tony -
Those are custom made to fit your exact wheel and pedestal configuration.
Good luck -
Bob Gehrman
NS30U #396 “Quickbeam”
Baltimore, Maryland
You’ll get the best results with a local canvas maker who will measure and cut to precisely match your installation. In my neighborhood, that’ll run around $700 USD and up.
The only people I’ve found who will do a semi-custom job is Island Nautical, www.islandnauticalcanvas.com, Island Nautical, Inc. P.O. Box 207, 225 Fordham St., City Island, NY 10464, phone 718-885-2295, Fax 718-885-0813. They send you a form, you do the measurements and fill out the form, send it to them, and they make the cover and ship it to you.
If you want a decent but not perfect cover for a good price (about half what I would’ve had to pay a local canvas maker), they’re worth considering. You have to call them, because they haven’t updated their website and actually charge more than their prices posted there – not enough more to be a dealbreaker, but enough more to be worth checking. Their form doesn’t give you great ways to explain differences if you have a non-standard set-up. So what you get will be only as good as the measurements and instructions you give them. As an amateur, I made some rookie mistakes that I ended up paying someone to fix. (I took it to a local cushion replacement shop, and they pointed me to the tailor who sews their cushions for them because he had a heavy-duty machine.) I think I paid around $275 or so to Island Nautical for the cover and another $50 to the local tailor for the fixes.
If you have the skills, you can also go to SailRite, and buy their do-it-yourself kit: https://www.sailrite.com/how-to-make-binnacle-cover, which will run you $175-250, depending on the size of your wheel and height of your pedestal. This is NOT a beginner’s project, though, and requires that you have access to a heavier-duty sewing machine than most home models.
You can also buy a barbeque cover on Amazon for well under $75 that you can throw over it. I know this because I saw the suggestion on another sailing discussion group. Being a function over form kinda guy, I thought about it, but even I couldn’t bring myself to sink that low.
– Bob
Me Gusta
Nonsuch e26U #233
Your main sail storage bag might fit. That is what I used before I had my full enclosure.
mark h
n36#25
netherlands
My wife made one from Sunbrella and a long zipper. Local non-marine fabric store (Fabriclannd) has some Sunbrella colours on sale every spring as part of their outdoor fabric sale. Materials were about CAN$40 and we had left over cloth for a windlass cover. She did it with a basic home sewing machine but with better quality thread (forge the name). She is capable and inventive but not a pro seamstress. We like to do as many projects as we can on the boat for several reasons:
- We are cheap
- We have the time
- We develop useful skills
- We appreciate the satisfaction of looking at something and thinking ‘we did that’
- … did I mention we are cheap?
Bruce Clark/June Wan
Nonsuch 30 ‘Nonsuch’
Whitby YC, Ontario
I made a mast boot cover with Sunbrella, guite simple. If you can make a pattern by taking apart your old cover, the rest is not that difficult. I use ordinary Gutterman polyester thread, and just repaired my sail cover with this thread-it’s tough stuff.
Dorothy Salusbury
Cathartic
Nonsuch 30
Ashbridges Bay Yacht Club
Toronto Canada
My wife made one from Sunbrella and a long zipper. Local non-marine fabric store (Fabriclannd) has some Sunbrella colours on sale every spring as part of their outdoor fabric sale. Materials were about CAN$40 and we had left over cloth for a windlass cover. She did it with a basic home sewing machine but with better quality thread (forge the name). She is capable and inventive but not a pro seamstress. We like to do as many projects as we can on the boat for several reasons: – You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “INA Nonsuch Discussion Group” group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to . To view this discussion on the web visit .
Another idea for mast boot covers is white rubber-roofing material, if you have a pattern.
Ed Cook
Chat-eau, N26c, #173
Middle River, MD
Tony,
Greetings to Nyack (used to keep my boat at Petersen’s)!
I have a Nonsuch 26 and I’m pretty sure my binnacle cover has the maker’s name on it, but I don’t know if it’s the same size as the 30’s.
Bill
The wheel cover for my 26 was made by Genco Marine in Mississauga, Ontario. I made up this drawing for them to use.
To add a safety topic, I have been removing the wheel in winter, and was continually banging my knee on the wheel shaft. To stop the pain I drilled a 1 inch hole in a rubber ball and pushed it onto shaft end.
John Barbour
I just ran across this older thread. Apparently none of the messages were delivered to me at the time.
I recently had a custom wheel/pedestal cover made by the same guy who made my dodger last year. He makes all of the canvas for the Beneteau dealer who is in our marina. It cost me $ 543.75. Fast, friendly, and apparently affordable compared to the $700 in Bob’s area and to the off-the-shelf ones I was able to find online. Most of which were in the same ballpark. Unfortunately, I can only offer this as a data point because he works locally. He sends a couple of fitters down and the use some slightly sticky plastic to make their patterns in place. But you might ask around to the sailboat dealers in your area to see who does their canvas work.
–Brian Godfrey
Vela, NS33 #77, San Diego
Tony,
I’m going to throw this out there. I recently added a chart plotter to my pedestal and my existing cover wouldn’t quite fit. I took it off to try to do something with it and was on the boat with a rainy forecast (common occurrence in Nova Scotia) and didn’t want to get everything wet so I looked around and there was my sailboat’s 540 sq ft sail’s sail bag. I’ve gotta say, I ended up using it the rest of the year. It fit perfectly, kept things dry and was quick/easy to use because there was only a drawstring at the bottom. The only downside is that the bag cost over $5000 
David Godfrey
Thursdays Child NS30C #145
RNSYS Halifax, Nova Scotia
and for the more economically minded…try Home Depot boat accessories. If you want a weather proof cover, blue, I think mine was about $40…and still doing its job 3 years later. Its just a big blue bag. Not fancy, but it works.
I made the pedestal cover for our 30U after we added a bigger pedestal guard and a chart plotter. I have sew lots and while I have a Sailrite machine, I could have sewn the cover on a regular home sewing machine. I would consider a cover an ideal first sewing project.
First off, get some rough estimates of the amount of material you will need and buy some patterning skrim. (https://www.sailrite.com/Dura-Skrim-2-Patterning-Material-74) Drape, tape and cut the skrim until you have a pattern you are happy with. (If you want, you only need a half pattern - right or left - and then fold your material in two and when you cut it out, you will have the full size.) You can also use newspaper or such, but that rips easier. While I started making mine planning to put in a zipper, I made it a bit fuller and skipped the zipper, saving the costs of a zipper and the time to install one. (I note that zippers tend to scare people - skip the zip and save some stomach lining!) My cover simply slips over the wheel, cockpit table and pedestal, kind of like a sail bag but without a draw string. There is a front and a back with a couple of darts in the back just above the wheel. While it has never blown off the pedestal, I put four grommets in the bottom to tie it down in hurricane force winds.
With a little thought, this is an easy first project and will save you lots of money. Sunbrella (and make sure you get marine) is $30/yd (60" wide) at Seattle Fabrics (https://www.seattlefabrics.com/Sunbrella-Awning-and-Marine-Fabric_c_207.html). Sailrite sells a bunch of different suitable fabrics - https://www.sailrite.com/shop/fabric/marine-fabric/marine-canvas-fabric?facet_marine_uses=Dodgers. You will probably need 3 yds, maybe 2yd, and some good polyester thread. $100 max. Get the same material as the balance of your boat and it will look great and you will be proud of the job. You savings are halfway to paying for a heavy duty machine . . . Does the dodger look shabby? Make you own dodger and you have paid for the machine.
One downside of having the machine and knowledge - everyone asks you to make/fix stuff! They always try to pay me - I have them make a donation to one of my favorite charities instead!
lloyd herman
Rendezvous, 30U
Port Washington, NY