Yesterday afternoon, Diana Hanks checked in after she wrapped up her boat for the end of season in her brand new cover, a Full Zip Nylon Cordura® in Marine Blue body with Sunbrella Pink tip and tail for her King 1x (as pictured above). We are always looking for ways to make our products better. Often we come up with improvements on our own, but sometimes those innovations are sparked by customer input. We recognize that and react quickly.

Earlier this summer, we modified the bow-flags sewn into our boat covers. The biggest change was moving to a more durable fabric - 1.5oz Nylon Rip-stop Sailcloth, to be specific. This is the fabric of spinnakers and kites. It is hard wearing and tough! Next, we modified the attachment point. Instead of sewing the flag into the end seam, it is attached to a short piece of webbing allowing it to better withstand the whipping around that occurs while cartopping.

Last but not least, as of this morning, all flags will now have a stitched-on tab of reflective webbing for better visibility in low light conditions. As you can see in her email below, Diana really liked the new reflective webbing fabric we have sewn onto covers near the boat ends. This 2-inch-wide High Visibility Fabric Stripe Webbing Ribbon replaces the reflective piping sewn in previously where the Tip and Tail portions join the Body of the cover. When we read about Diana's thought to add reflective fabric to the flag, it became obvious to us to do that in-house for everyone on all our covers going forward.

Subject: I LOVE the cover

I like the improvements. The reflective material is a wonderful improvement! I had sewn some reflectors onto my Peinert cover, because we always end up driving to Regattas in the dark. Now I won’t have to add them to this cover. I still might put a strip of reflective fabric on the tail for visibility directly behind me. I had already bought some reflective ribbon to go on there. Also, I like the way you now attach the tail, with it being sewn into that webbing. The webbing is right where my Peinert cover showed wear after the very first trip. This cover is well beefed up, and you left room for a tennis ball to go over that sharp stern. Bravo!

Diana Hanks

We are so glad you like the improvements to our covers, Diana, and thanks as well for this awesome flag idea! It's great to hear from our customers. We love photos of our customers and their Burnham products. If you have something to share with us, you can be sure we will give it our full attention. Maybe you will be featured you in our next blog. 

A note about the tennis ball mentioned above. You may not be able to tell at first glance, but Diana has a tennis ball protecting the stern end of her boat inside the cover. Kings and a few other shells out there have very fine (i.e. pointy) sterns. Not only can you hurt yourself walking into a pointy boat, they also tend to easily wear through the end of a boat cover. A quick solution for both situations involves our humble boathouse friend the tennis ball. Cut a slit into a tennis ball, open it "Pac-Man" style, and slip it onto the stern. Take it off for rowing but using it when you are storing your boat on a rack or in its cover will protect the cover and keep you from getting an unwanted jab at the same time.

Peter

Cover the boat you love with the best!