Vinyl Seat Cracking and Flaking

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M

mrmikepettit

Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2015
Messages
7
Fluid Motion Model
C-24 C
Non-Fluid Motion Model
Cutwater 28
Vessel Name
New Horizons
Good afternoon,

We purchased a Cutwater 28 in August of 2013. Last year we noticed that the vinyl on the seats was cracking and starting to "flake". This year the vinyl is flaking off and leaving us with exposed material. After doing some research on this forum as well as others, it appears this is a known issue stemming from the supplier of the vinyl. We have seen that there has been some assistance from Cutwater to resolve this issue and was hoping there might be something you can do or recommend.

Thanks,

Mike and Debi Pettit
New Horizions
 
We have the same issue with our 2013 C28. We are planning to find someone local that can make new cushions for us.

If it makes a difference, we are the second owner.
 
We purchased a 2011 R29 in Dec 2018. Ours started flaking on our cruise to Florida this winter. We were aware of the flaking issue when we purchased. It's my understanding that RT no longer provides the replacement material for that known issue. We are in the process now of re-upholstering our cushions ourselves. Good luck.
 
Ours too. How much have people paid to get them recovered? We are in Annapolis, so taking recomondations.
 
+1
2012 boat. my boat has dandruff at the moment with all the flakes falling off!

i just wish I could buy new seat covers direct from the factory as apposed to pulling off the seats and taking them to an upholsterer. I've procrastinated on this for 12 months now.
 
I made some terry cloth slipcovers from bath towels. I don't like to sit on vinyl on hot days because of the sweat and on cold days it's cold to sit on until I warm it up :shock: . While the slipcovers hide dandruff, the flakes still flood the cabin sole. So I bit the bullet and took them to a marine canvas shop to be reupholstered. The seats are not difficult to remove and it will be a good time to change out the foam for new denser foams. I even raised the front edge of the seat so it became more comfortable to sit (added a one and a quarter inch spacer to the front side of the seat bottom. I went with a marine upholster because they know to use stainless steel staples and materials that don't mildew. The marine canvas guy might even come to your boat or your could take the boat to him, and he will remove seats for you. :roll:
 
Lots on Tugnuts about this issue - not much encouraging... The vinyl they used during this vintage was butter soft but doesn't hold up.

Anyway - two winters ago we had all our interior seats redone with almost as soft vinyl by "Boat Skins Canvas and Upholstery" in Abingdon (maybe close enough for JamesC28) -

Took all the seats off (some require two people to unscrew) and delivered all the pieces - take photos, it isn't completely obvious which goes where in what direction!

They did a good job and the new seats are more comfortable than the new stiff vinyl that Cutwater is now using.

Total cost was right around $2,000.
 
Thanks All!
We too have decided to recover. A friend of ours owns a marine canvas and upholstery business and is going to do the work for us. We have decided on the Luxour Leather (which is vinyl),from their Sea Breeze Plus performance collection. We decided to change up the colors so they will be navy and a gold color much like on the cockpit. Will post pics when its finished.

Now I'm going to vent a little. We bought New Horizons brand new in 2013. The dealer was in Mass. and we live in very northern part of NY on Lake Champlain. We love out boat and did from the first moment we saw here. We had some issues in the beginning,many of which I've seen on here.. battery issuses, charger issues, inverter still doesn't work and genset works but spits out an error code after about 20 minutes. Some of our other issues were operator error, we all live and learn. I think my biggest disappointment has been the handling of the seat issues. These boats are expensive - at least it was for us. We boat this with our retirement home money so we could boat on the Lake and travel beyond. When I bought a new car (and it was wayyyy cheaper) if there had been this kind of issue the company would have done a recall or something. I think Fluid Motion really dropped the ball on this. I understand some people got new seats or skins or whatever. I feel like because we didn't complain it was a non-issue and all of us here are bearing the expense. It was nothing we did and the company has admitted it was a supplier issue. So there, I feel better getting that out.

Again, we love our boat. Just a frustrated.

Thanks for listening!!!

Best regards,

Mike and Debi Pettit
 
Fluid Motion did supply fabric to a number of folks when the problem first started coming up about 5 years ago when the boats in question were only a few years old. Now that the materials have lasted 6-8 years they are not.
Responding to the car analogy, my Toyota Tundra’s factory paint is so thin it scratches just looking at it. No recall. No factory support at all. Not a safety issue and Toyota doesn’t care.
We had our upholstery redone 3 1/2 years ago by a local custom auto upholstery guy who also does boats. Looks so much better in the new materials. A bit expensive but glad we did it!
 
So to those of you who have already recovered their seats I have a question. I am in the process of having mine reupholstered now. I have all the seats removed except for the bottom seat in the stack of four by the helm. That seat is screwed down to the fiberglass. One cannot access the screws without removing the wine cooler, which is also bolted down inside the fiberglass. There is no way to access. How did anyone else remove this seat?
 
Removed the wine cooler. Not too difficult. Access back from the Cave.
 
Great info in this thread, folks. We too need to re-upholster the helm and front first mate/flipper dinette seats due to reasons mentioned in this thread.
The aft dinette seat is still fine at this stage, but it may be a matter of time.

Did anyone have success in colour/style matching the beige fabric in their re-upholstering projects?
 
For those that have this issue of flaking or just aged fabrics replace all at the same time. You will be much happier and things will look right. Just my nickel of advise. No longer 2 cents due to inlation.
 
If you can find it
we matched ours with the help of our local upholsterer...
Item name is TURN605
Item number CAT118104568/00011 from Ennis Fabrics

We have had to have helm seat done and are now looking at doing the dinette ....
any hints on removal are always welcomed
 
Ours were redone just before we bought it. Navy Sunbrella. Comfortable, Not slippery, vents a little. Changed to Navy which goes well.
 
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