Sew what?

Let's talk about our sky light. It gives us a view of the sky (especially at night), and a view of the sails, without having to go outside. It lets in more natural light. Or so the sales brochure would have you believe...

The reality is that it mostly just lets in heat. The sun is brutal. We spend most of our time trying to find shelter from it.

We have opened the sliding cover for the sky light exactly three times. Once during boat delivery, to make sure it worked, once to check for delamination and leaks, and once to install insulating material (the silver bubble wrap looking stuff you can see through the sky light in the picture above).

Delamination does happen. The glue holding the window in place comes loose, and then you have leaks. So far, ours is fine, but it's just a matter of time. The sun is brutal.

Our friends, Carole and Hugh, gave us the idea of making a cover for the sky light that goes over the window. This not only keeps things MUCH cooler, it also protects the window from delamination.

Today, that's what we did.

This project was pretty straightforward. The complicated part was having to deal with long fabric that won't fit on our table.

The whole thing cinches around the window with some paracord that is sewn into the hem. The corners are trimmed, with hems sewn for reinforcement.

We spent a little time tightening the paracord and getting the wrinkles out, making sure that the hemmed edge was wrapped under the edge of the sky light.

The results look reasonable enough. And should be secure enough to withstand pretty strong winds, though we will have to test that to be sure.

Not bad for a few hours of work.