Season Three, Sewing on-board...episode #2

My husband and I own a Catalina 30. When we first bought our boat, I thought it was a big boat. This coming from the girl who only experienced boat life from her Mad River Canoe or sit-on-top kayak. In truth, our Cat30 is a great size for two people, and it was indeed a big boat for my first ever sailboat, but it turns into a small space rather quickly when working on interior projects. Each time we tear into something or take on a new project the entire boat requires rearranging, but I have found that with the completion of each project comfort levels increase and onboard living only gets better.

Recently I tackled the track curtains, I will admit that I felt a little intimidated, but they turned out great and I love the finished product. Of course, I had to monopolize the entire space for most of the day, which displaced my husband a bit, but he busied himself with battery compartment work - that's another blog topic all together.

Our boat needed some TLC, it was in rough shape. We tossed out the original curtain tracks, they were brittle and fragile. A friend at our marina donated her aluminum tracks as replacements and we happily recycled them into our boat. They were easily installed into our existing track holes and all that was left was the actual work of designing and sewing the new curtains. If you haven't discovered Sailrite how-to videos I enthusiastically suggest you start exploring, they are the best resource I have found to date. The step-by-step video can be viewed here; https://www.sailrite.com/Curtain-Track-Surface-Mount-Aluminum-48.

I used the same fabric I upholstered our cushions with, resulting in a consistent theme. I ordered these items from Sailrite to complete the curtain project:

• Mounting Clip for Curtain Track

• Snap-On Tape for Curtains

• Snap-On Carrier

We now have onboard privacy, but perhaps even more nice is the ability to block the glaring heat of the sun. I am happy to have additional privacy at night but during the day I notice that the temp of our boat is easier to maintain, we have AC, but it can still get warm with the glaring sunshine.

This project was well worth the work, a win-win on multiple fronts. To be fair I did part of the work at home (fabric prep), but I installed the snap tape onsite so that I could custom fit them to the tracks. Full disclosure our tracks taper from 8" to 6" so I had a 2" difference across the entire length. I decided to make curtains that were the same width across the entire span, I adjusted the Snap-On tape on the back to accommodate for the angle, the result is a symmetrical end-product and to the naked eye they appear to be even across the entire track.