polycotton was always highly rated as it was breathable it tends to shrink though. for heavy duty get it in top gun not quite as colourfast as weathermax but better puncture resistance....

Confused? My dinghy cover is topgun - very impressed (3 years and in mint condition out side all year) next one will be weathermax. (and yes i am trade, and weathermax is fast becoming our cover cloth of choice))

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.

 

Potentially for dinghy covers it is maybe to similar to acrylic - and should be left to sailcovers and sprayhoods and the like.

Top gun should not be anymore than weathermax or polycotton from my experience (and what we charge).

Also if the cover cloth has a PU coating tis will hinder the breathability of the fabric, in which to answer the original question the best breathable cover cloth is polycotton (taking Roger's comments re weathermax).

We use polycotton on everything from dinghy covers upto large yacht winter covers. Bear in mind that salt/dirt/u.v all help to degrade the cloth quite quickly and this can be negated by cleaning and reproofing. Fabsil has u.v. inhibitors in which will help the cover and stitching to last.

Most threads used will last around 4 - 5 years before the u.v rots it. Like most things marine annual upkeep will keep your stuff working longer......

if you want to see the charts showing the differences between this lot this site has alot on it all (nothing to do with me but good charts for cross referencing)

http://www.leesailcovers.com/Weathermax80.php - http://www.leesailcovers.com/Weathermax80.php

 

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.

 

 

I will not be replacing the Weathermax with another the R&S cover is still going strong (on the boat I sold 18 months ago) whilst mine is in need of replacing

It would be for an RS300 that are known to have a known problem with the gel bubbling under standard PVC covers.  Has anyone seen problems like this with Hydralite covers?

 

With top covers i think the thing that kills them is trailing, in the dinghy park they're fine as long as they are put on correctly and cant flap.

 

Still think top gun fabric is best for dinghies......

I have not bought a weathermax cover yet, personally for me there was little wrong with poly cotton so i am not sure why i need a more expensive material.  I will be in the market for a new cover when the next winter cover sales start so would really like to hear other peoples feedback.

 

Russ

 

Seems to me like a lot of these fabrics are going to be very similar, just different names and brand names.

 

I'd advise against towing with the cover on if you want it to survive for any amount of time though as you are basically putting it through a gale force beating every time you go on the motorway!

More by luck than judgement I have an existing PVC cover so it looks like a good plan to keep that and use it for trailing. 

Duralyte (sp?) and Hydralyte are recommended by manufacturers but I decided to stick with Weathermax based on this experience. Why you would buy a cheap one, I don't know.

I have a cover made out of 'TopNotch' which is Weathermax in all but name (and price) according to my friendly cover maker. Along the lines of ProGrip and Algeos foam.