Breathable Dinghy cover

Abrasion resistance seems poor compared with acrylic cloths, have a look at a sample and make your own judgement, I would however say its a great material for undercovers, folds up small yet heavy enough to provide some real protection compared to the thin nylon undercovers supplied by some.

 

Hydralite appears to be unique to R & S, I have no affiliation, but does seem to wear better than weathermax, although I have no data on relative waterproof or breathable properties.

 

While weathermax seems to have become the material of choice for the large sailmakers over the last few years I feel the best course of action is often to take a walk round the dinghy park and look at various covers a year or two into their normal life, you should have an idea of which boats stay out 12 months of the year, see how they are surviving. Also take a look at the fit, if the fit is poor then the material is unimportant.

 

As stated above "Top Gun" is probably the best material available, but not many use it as standard, probably due to the cost.

At the end of the day too many people choose covers on cost alone, boats worth thousands of pounds suffer a cheap cover to save a few quid, and suffer as a result.

 

 

The one real strength of weathermax is that it does not shrink or grow, I understand the threads will stretch but do recover to original length, this is not true of acrylics or polycotton.

The other interesting fact is that while weathermax is available in 2 weights, 8oz and 6.5oz, it doesn't appear that any of the "major" dinghy cover manufacturers specify which weight is used (anybody know?), it would be easy there fore to suggest they use the lighter/cheaper fabric, but I really dont know, just as I don't know which weight the weathermax cover I've had is.

 

I guess one of the difficulties with this is having to wait several years to see how a cover really bears up to the rigours of the British weather, while I would expect the material manufacturers to do this I doubt the cover makers have the time and money, and will need to trust the data they are given. I still think looking around the boat park is a good way to see whats standing up well to all thats been thrown at it.