vinyl seats cracking after two Texas summers, repair or reupholster

the blue tarp is the problem, not the answer. it traps heat and moisture, it rubs, and the sun cooks whatever it touches. ask me how i know. the first thing i would do is a fitted cover. we have a Sunbrella one on the 217 from a shop in Austin, it was about 700 and after three summers the vinyl still looks new. their fabric guide is on sunbrella.com if you want to see what the marine grade actually is.

for the split, the iron on vinyl patches from the auto parts store last about one season. what has held up for me is a proper marine vinyl repair kit with the heat tool, and even that is a bandaid. the 900 for the bow from a real shop is fair, ask them what vinyl they use and if it is a marine grade with a UV thread.

3,400 for the whole boat is in line with what i paid in Austin two years ago for a 217, 3,100. the shop used Spradling marine vinyl and Tenara thread, which is the gore thread that does not rot in the sun. worth asking for by name. cheap shops use polyester thread and the seams open up in two summers even when the vinyl is fine, which sounds like exactly what you are looking at.

if it is only the bow and the sundeck, do those and put the rest of the money into a cover. and 303 the vinyl every month, it is 20 bucks a bottle and it works.

i did mine myself on the old pontoon. bought marine vinyl by the yard online, 1/2 inch foam, a staple gun with stainless staples and borrowed a friend's walking foot machine. took two weekends for six cushions and cost about 400 in material. it looked like a home job from three feet away and perfect from ten. if the boat is going to live in the sun anyway and you are handy, that is the cheap route. if you want it to look like the dealer did it, pay the shop.

one thing from the shop side, my brother does canvas in New Braunfels. when you take cushions in, ask them to check the plywood backing boards. on a 2019 the bow seat bases are usually a composite board but the sundeck pad can be plywood and if water has gotten under the vinyl the board is soft. the shop cannot see it until the old vinyl is off and that is when the 900 turns into 1,300. ask up front.

adding one for anybody who finds this later. if the boat lives outside, park it with the bow pointed east so the sundeck gets the morning sun and the bimini shades it in the afternoon, and crack the cover at the transom so it breathes. i tow boats all summer and the ones with the worst vinyl are always the ones under a tight tarp on the west side of a house.