Whatcha-muh-call-it

[PW]

Hello all. Bought a used '84 Harris FloteBote 240 Sunliner 10 years ago, and it has been the source of many good times for family and friends. A couple of questions:
A) What do you call the frame that holds a fabric cover which shades the back 1/3 of the boat, and only folds down to store the boat between seasons. It's not like a bimini, which you can fold away if you want sun all over the boat. when it's down, the frame covers 1/3 of the playpen, making it unusable.
B) The snap-on cover for that frame was original to the boat. It was heavy-duty vinyl and was already 24 years old when I bought the boat. When it died 3 years later, a local canvas shop made me a new one out of Sunbrella. It's already dead. Can anybody recommend a heavy vinyl that will last longer than 7 years?
Many thanks for your help.

 

[djnordeen]

Its called a hardtop. Post a picture would help

 

[JimS123]

In 1984 our new boat came with a heavy vinyl top, which was totally waterproof, unlike sunbrella which is water resistant. I haven't seen that type of fabric in many years. Doubt its even available any more.

 

[PW]

Its called a hardtop. Post a picture would help

The top frame on my boat looks like this when it's in the up position, although this is not my boat, which is still under shrink wrap here in Michigan. And this frame appears to have an actual hard covering, as opposed to mine which is fabric held on by snaps.

 

[djnordeen]

The top frame on my boat looks like this when it's in the up position, although this is not my boat, which is still under shrink wrap here in Michigan. And this frame appears to have an actual hard covering, as opposed to mine which is fabric held on by snaps.

Hey PW. I’m in Lansing. Here’s spice of my hardtop.

 

[ahicks]

I know what you're talking about. It's not a hard top. There's no fabric used on a hard top. They're all aluminum or maybe fiberglass. Maybe a "convertible top"? Soft top?

If your fabric shop did actually use "Sunbrella" for your new cover, it should have lasted 10 years easily, usually even longer. You might want to show it to them for possible repair? Those are generally removed and stored indoors in the off season. The ones I used to have used drawstrings to keep them nice and snug.