Dinghy wheel cover started (by Debbie) - 2015

Middle of September 2015 - At private slip in Nuevo Vallarta in Banderas Bay, Mexico

Debbie and I engineering the Danard dinghy wheel cover using a paper pattern.

The covers need to be easy to put on and off and vent the tires so salt water and sand drains away.

 At first we were going to make covers for our Danard dinghy wheels but decided it was not worth the project time as we had other sewing projects to do. We figured the tires would be fine in the sun for the winter. Never thought about the plastic hubs.

 While anchored in Santiago, Mexico our neighbors on s\v Airborne, Kathy and Hal (Barney) were telling us their tale of breaking a dinghy wheel. They landed in large surf with their dinghy and the plastic hub broke on the dinghy wheel. They said it was from the wheels sitting in the sun too long. Hmmm.. guess we will make those covers after all.

Alan, who you see in the picture, was over with his Sailrite machine with his wife Elizabeth from s\v Vivacia adding some side shade to their boat awning.

Left over dinghy chap material and 90% Phifertex shade screen.

The pattern traced then cut-out with the hot knife for the final pieces.

Chafe material was used to go around the hub 

and edges that will get used a lot when the cover is put on and off.  

Velcro will close the edges.

The edge without the chafe material will be sewn 

to the white Pfifertex  whereas the chafe material edge

 will close to the Pfifertex with Velcro  straps of some kind.

One front and one edge put together.

A ziz-zag stitch was used to cover the edge

 of the inside seam to prevent fraying.

So far, so good!  More to be done...