Is there a light colored fabric that will live long in the tropical sun?

by D & Don
(Oriental, NC)

We carry a plastic Walker Bay dinghy upside down on our deck. It is ruined from sun exposure, we have replaced it with new and want to cover the new dink for a longer life. We think we will need a breathable fabric to avoid mildew. Our experience with Sunbrella is that the darker fabrics have a much longer life, because, we think, the dyes protect the fibers. However, the boat would look nicer if the dink cover is a light color, like Sunbrella Linen. How do the lighter colored solution dyed polyester fabrics fare in the sun compared to the darker? Do you think that the light colored polyester would outlive Sunbrella Linen?


It's really hard to say at this point, if the new generations of polyester would outlast sunbrella. The old generation polyester did not outlast sunbrella.
The overall performance has been very positive from the world of my fellow fabricators. It's early, but I would suggest possibly weathermax 80 in the light colors. The only thing I would warn you about is a small shrinkage factor. So don't make it overly tight. Give it some room to do its thing and I think you will be happy with it. Another possibility would be, Top Notch 9. If I were to try any boat cover material for what you are asking, I think it would be these two.

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