I'm curious about what other people have chosen for their interior fabrics.

We stayed away from leather and didn't find any fabric choices at the yard that worked for us.

Right now we are planning to purchase Upholstery grade UltraSuede. Comfort of cotton with durability of leather. Not cheap but a wonderful fabric. Feels warm in cool climates and breathes in hot ones.

We will use a solid color, probably a slate blue.

Hi..Back from Antarctica and a quck visit to check out 462-6...slow progress but looking OK and will get rid of the pink soon???Now fitting all the electronics and have an engine finally...so the big issue is the exhaust??I think I get version 3

Made all the final decisions on upholstery & bunk foam...copied 462-5 for the bunks..half soft half hard...then 45 foam for seats and 35 for backrests...decided on ultra leather for all the covers except for the bunks...I had a good friend buy me a boat present...a STIDD helm chair!! .have spent a lot of time skippering a friends boat in one ,so VERY happy with the gift..they really are a supurb chair..no wobbles in a sea way and VERY functional...it is the off-white ultra leather cover so I bought a roll of the off white to use in the rest of the boat...I will use it on the flybridge and on the cockpit cusions too.

I have decided to have a very comfortable cockpit lounge the same as the pilot house dinette across the back of the cockpit....but not extending past the side entries...the standard 2" closed cell foam is very hard and you sit bolt upright with them.....if you want to lounge it should be comfortable...and they still should fit-stow in the forward flybridge locker....this is the biggest issue for cockpit cusions...from experience, if you have no where to stow them when at sea do not get them...they can be a pain in the butt? just left out they get covered in salt etc.

So I agree with you...ultra leather is very expensive but it is the ultimate product...warm in winter,cool in summer,tough,looks very smart,easy to keep clean, you don't have to worry about it getting wet,doesn't stretch out of shape,is really tough and will way outlast any other material...do it once,do it right,be proud of it....if you can afford it,...if not go the best in your budget.

I think I will use 2/3rds of a roll for all my stuff...Buying the roll was about what I would have paid if I bought cut length for 2/3rds...so buying the roll gives me about a third extra material for free, - it is expensive- so get a quote on a whole roll...I bought mine from STIDD.

All the best.

Carol and I are also just back from the yard as of a week ago. After investigating fabrics and looking at leather, we have also decided on Ultra Leather for the interior cushions on our 382-3, for all the reasons that Don mentioned.

I will add that in Feb. I attended the Miami Boat Show and observed that just about all of the "quality yachts" were using Ultra Leather. I've found that pricing is all over the place and am still investigating this. The best I've found so far in the U.S. is $49/ running yard (54" wide) for the 291 series.

Don, I"m interested in knowing which of the proucts you are using, 291, which is the basic, or one of the others?

As an aside, I took a sample one evening and tried to destroy it. I left a spot of wine, another of motor oil, majic marker, ink pen, etc. on two different samples for an hour. Remerkably, the ONLY stain that didn't completely come out without a trace was the wine on the pure white sample. It left a yelowish stain. I retried the wine, leaving it for only a minute or so and it wiped right up with no staining. Of course if you spill the stuff you are hopefully not going to wait long to wipe it.

I used bleach as part of my cleaning process and found no after effects or damage from the bleach.

Regards Dean Phelps

I am off to the yard April 2 and presumably this is one of the decisions to be made at that time. I am a bit colour blind and Sirirat is not coming this trip so hopefully I will make the right choices.

I imagine that one could not go wring with off white, and it would brighten up the interior a bit but I am a bit concerned with dirt.

From Don's comments it seems that it is not available in China?
What does a roll cost and how many sq yards per roll?

There may be other manufacturers but UltraSuede in the US is called Alcantara overseas.

The fabric choices at the yard are very limited. We really didn't find anything we liked.

We are trying to get Toray (the manufacturer) through the distributor in Tokyo to contact the yard to see if they can get better prices.

There are a lot of different thickness of UltraSuede, just make sure you get upholstery grade.

The stuff really is impressive.

Elena (my wife) dug up the contact info for Asia from the www.alcantara.com website. (not a very good website).

ountry: Japan
Company: Toray Ecsaine Plaza Co. Ltd.
Divisione: Automotive After market
Contact: Higashi-Nihonbashi EX Building 3F, 3-4-18,Higashi-Nihonbashi,Chuo-Ku, Tokyo 103-0004
Tel: 81+3-5695-3501 FAX: 81+3-5695-3506

Country: Japan
Company: Toray Industries, Inc.
Divisione: Automotive After market
Contact: Nakanoshima Mitsui Building, 3-3, Nakanoshima 3-chome, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-8222
Tel: 81+6-7688-3381 FAX: 81+3-7688-3797

Hi...not sure what UltraSuede is...we had 54" roll...33yards at US$42 per yard...$1386 but it was ULTRALEATHER #3700...ivory colour...very heavy and we had to fly it in with the chair...no regrets though.

Gulf Fabrics

Follow this link for info on Ultra Leather and Ultra Suede.

Basically they feel just like leather (ultraleather) and suede (ultrasuede) but they wear better and are very easy to keep clean. Ultrasuede costs more.

Some quotes:

Ultrasuede® Milano which continues to gain popularity in the marine industry due to its beauty, durability and livability never before dreamed possible in a luxury material Remarkably soft and durable, Ultrasuede® Milano has a unique capacity to create different environments. Rooms furnished with Ulrasuede® Milano are warm, elegant, comfortable, and practical.

With 48 colors available, Ultrasuede® Milano is a beautiful choice for all applications - from bold to subtle. Ultrasuede® Milano is ideal for heavier duty uses. This superior product exceeds the industrial standard for residential and commercial furniture in test for air permeability, resistance abrasion, and tear strength.

With all of the beauty and softness of Ultrasuede® Milano and strength for the most demanding applications, it is highly recommended for all upholstery uses including wallcovering for marine applications.

Ultrasuede® Milano is extremely easy to clean, it can also be washed on the cool water cycle. To maintain its natural look, just use a soft brush. Spots are easy to remove: Simply follow the instructions on the cleaning chart at bottom of page.


Ultraleather

Now you can deliver the beauty of leather without the high price, production headaches or costly after care. Because now you can deliver Ultraleather® HP.

Available in a palette of 71 designer colors, Ultraleather® HP convincingly captures the look and feel of genuine leather. In fact no material comes closer to duplicating the aesthetics and all-temperature comfort of fine European calfskin. When in comes to durability and abrasion resistance Ultraleather® HP performs on a par with leather's legendary toughness, easily standing up to 400,000 double rubs.

Yet Ultraleather® HP also offers key advantages real leather can"t match-benefits like low waste, uniform color and texture, excellent color fastness, superb stain resistance and environment-friendly manufacturing process. All of which adds to lower production cost now, and reduced maintenance expenses down the road

Here is another company that sells materials that are less expensive but still very nice.

Crypton Fabrics

Ok, Ultraleather it is for me.

Where is the best price

It would be good to have a group effort to get the ultraleather and reduce leftovers. I also will want this fabric for my sedan

I'm on for a group buy, but we will need to have the same colour. I need to order this soon

Ivory would be nice, but my mind is open.

I wonder how Seahorse would feel about bringing ultraleather in as an option if a few of us sign up for a limited color array.

Hopefully Bill is reading this and will comment. If not, ask them for us all.

I have asked how much per standard 462 and no answer to date. If 1/2 roll per boat then it makes sense to choose a common colour as a full roll(s) is cheaper. If not there will still be some economny of scale in freight.

In any case I come out of the drydock in a couple of weeks and need to get on this ASPA

Quantity answer from the yard today:

Material amount required as below:
Saloon settee 315¡± ( 8m )
Pilothouse settee 473¡± ( 12m )
Cockpit settee 591¡± ( 15m )
The width of material can not be less than 51 1/ 4¡± ( 1.3m )

You also need to consider what kind of material you want to use/can be used for your cockpit settee (outdoor).

Looks like the cockpit is the biggest user

I am going to wait. I am still a couple of years from fabric installation, and the sedan fabric requirements may be different. Perhaps Seahorse will pick up on this popular option.

We went with Ultrasuede milano line from Gulf Fabrics. Very nice material. I like it better than the leather (ultra or real) as it doesn't have the sticky surface in humid weather. But that is personal preference and both materials are quite nice.

The yard just received the fabric, Gulf shipped it to their importer directly.

Seahorse:

Any progress in sourcing ultraleather?

Stidd quoted me 99.00/yard and Gulf Fabrics at 70.00 plus freight to the yard.

Surely it can be obtained at a more reasonable price?

quote:

Originally posted by Robert Straghan:
Stidd quoted me 99.00/yard and Gulf Fabrics at 70.00 plus freight to the yard.

Surely it can be obtained at a more reasonable price?

Try the link below USD48 per yard if you buy five yards +

http://cgi.ebay.com/ULTRALEATHER-Ultra-Leather-Faux-Lea...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The qualities you have quoted below... is that for the visable portions or the whole lot?

Quantities came from Stella/Jane and I presume to do the whole thing.

Stidd apparently made a mistake and the price for a 33 yard roll is now 52.00 USD yard.

My $42 price was a year ago and you get a "deal" if you buy a helm chair...expensive BUT excellent....also my 33yards gave me the pilothouse upholstery ,starboard saloon lounge...a pilot berth above that,...port side Dinette...and an extra single berth in the aft cabin...and we have only 2 yards left. If you don't have the stb. Pilot berth or a 3 berth aft cabin,... you will have more than the 2 yards left over.

I'm using the Sunbrella big stripe "yellow/natural" upholstery material for all the outdoor cushions - supplied by Port Supply...very Beach!...and a smooth very strong Nylon-PVC coated material for the permanent S.S. cockpit cover, so you can easily wash it off, and no grit is absorbed into Fabric, as the horizontal surfaces collect all the grime.

I will use Grey Sumbrella for all the fold-up/removable awnings/rope reel covers, boom covers etc.