Duffy Reupholstering & Canvas
Sun and salt are brutal on vinyl. We rebuild seats, backrests, canopy tops, side curtains, and covers in marine-grade materials that hold their colour through a full Southern California summer.
Nothing ages a Duffy faster than tired upholstery. A boat with a sound hull and a cracked, chalky interior looks a decade older than it is — and it's the cheapest thing on the boat to put right. Everything is cut and sewn in our own shop, which means we can match an existing pattern exactly or change it entirely without a lead time measured in months.
What's included
- Seat bases, backrests, and bolsters rebuilt over new closed-cell foam
- Marine vinyl with UV inhibitors and mildew-resistant backing
- New canopy tops with the scalloped valance cut to match the original
- Clear side curtains and full enclosure panels
- Snap, zipper, and fastener replacement throughout
- Mooring covers patterned to your specific boat
- Teak trim cleaned, sanded, and re-oiled while the seats are out
Materials we use
Vinyl
Marine-grade vinyl with a UV-stabilised topcoat and a mildew-resistant backing. It costs more per yard than the furniture-grade material some shops use, and it's the difference between five good years and two.
Foam
Closed-cell throughout. It drains instead of holding water, so a seat that gets rained on dries out rather than turning into a sponge that quietly rots its own plywood base.
Thread
PTFE thread, which outlasts the vinyl it's sewn into. Polyester thread is cheaper and it is the reason so many seams fail long before the panels do — the stitching powders away in the sun while the vinyl is still perfectly good.
Colour and pattern
Match the factory cream and nobody will know it's new except you. Or go two-tone with contrast piping, change the channel spacing, or add a diamond-stitch to the backrests. We bring samples to the boat, because vinyl looks completely different in harbor light than it does under shop fluorescents.
Doing the whole boat? Seats, canopy, and curtains together save on labour versus three separate visits, and everything is guaranteed to match — different dye lots months apart never quite do.
Typical pricing
| Item | Range |
|---|---|
| Single bench seat, base and back | $480–760 |
| Full interior, Duffy 18 | $2,100–3,200 |
| Full interior, Duffy 21 / 22 | $2,600–4,100 |
| Canopy top with scalloped valance | $1,250–1,900 |
| Clear side curtain set | $1,400–2,400 |
| Mooring cover | $780–1,300 |
Ranges reflect vinyl choice and how much of the underlying plywood and foam needs replacing. We'll know for certain once the first seat comes apart, and we'll call you before anything changes.
How it works
Four steps, no surprises on the invoice
Template
We measure the boat or pull the old covers to use as patterns, so the new set fits like the originals did when they were new.
Choose
Vinyl, piping, stitch pattern, and thread colour picked from samples held against your boat, in daylight.
Build
Cut and sewn in our shop. Most interiors take one to two weeks, and your boat stays in the water the whole time.
Fit
Installed on the boat, snaps set, tension adjusted, and any teak that came out goes back in oiled.
Common questions
Reupholstering, answered
How long is the boat out of service?
It usually isn't. We take the seats away and leave the boat in your slip, then come back to fit. Canopies and curtains are the same — measured on the boat, built in the shop, fitted in an afternoon.
Can you match my existing vinyl?
On factory Duffy cream and white, yes. Faded custom colours are harder — often the better-looking answer is to redo the adjacent panels at the same time so everything ages together from here.
Do you repair, or only replace?
Both. A single split seam or a torn panel is a repair. Once the vinyl has gone chalky and stiff across a whole seat, a repair is money spent twice.
What about the canopy frame?
We'll refinish or replace bent and pitted frame tubing while the canvas is off. It's much cheaper to do then than as a separate visit later.
Ready when you are
Tell us your boat and your harbor, and we'll come back with a free written estimate — usually within one business day.