Water management in cushions

[Winerocks]

I posted a while back a out minor annoyances in my Scarab; rattling things and drainage among others. One of the annoyances is water accumulation in the side cushions. I pulled the cushions off a while back to clean behind them and found wet pressure-treated wood, and wet foam. Disappointing but not entirely surprising.

I decided to tackle the issues yesterday. I’ve come to realize over the years that a huge part of boat ownership is “water management”. By this, I mean minimizing and accommodating the water that comes into the boat. It is impossible to eradicate it; but it is possible to control it. Rather than trying to prevent water from getting in there (impossible), I came up with a way to manage it. I took off the cushions and pulled out a whole bunch of staples that hold the vinyl to the wood backing. I marked and cut out some square and rectangular holes at the bottom, which overlapped the wood and foam.

The squares are 2.5cm x 2.5cm, and the rectangles are 1.5cm x 2.5cm. I sewed in fiberglass screen patches from behind the cutouts, and re-stapled the vinyl to the backing. This will allow any water that gets in there to drain out the bottom, and make its way to the bilge.

The wood was not rotting (yet), but had clearly been wet for a long time. I believe it is getting in there every time it rains, through the cover cutout around the wake tower.
Hand-sewing vinyl sucks and my skills are mediocre, but I’m confident the stitches will hold, and the water will drain. If you keep your Scarab outside for the season, have a wake tower and the factory covers; there’s a very good chance your side cushions are like this. Rotting wood sucks and stinks, and I don’t want it in my boat!
Hopefully this helps a few other Scarab folks.

 

[Dean P]

Good idea. I would suggest getting rid of the wood and replace with marine starboard. The wood will (as you know) will rot and the staples will rust. Ask me how I know.

 

[Rtimleck]

Excellent idea and very innovative

 

[Winerocks]

Good idea. I would suggest getting rid of the wood and replace with marine starboard. The wood will (as you know) will rot and the staples will rust. Ask me how I know.

I know....when the time comes to re-upholster the boat, I’ll definitely use starboard. I didn’t want to pull the foam off the board and make it a bigger project. My previous boat was an ‘89 I/O with wood everywhere. It was a nightmare. At least Scarab used stainless steel staples for the upholstery.

 

[Nexus]

Nice write up. But, what are these "cm"'s of which you speak?

 

[Winerocks]

Ha! I’m a Canadian living in the US. I can’t let the metric system go; it makes too much sense.

 

[Benbalk]

I posted a while back a out minor annoyances in my Scarab; rattling things and drainage among others. One of the annoyances is water accumulation in the side cushions. I pulled the cushions off a while back to clean behind them and found wet pressure-treated wood, and wet foam. Disappointing but not entirely surprising.
View attachment 132473View attachment 132474View attachment 132475
I decided to tackle the issues yesterday. I’ve come to realize over the years that a huge part of boat ownership is “water management”. By this, I mean minimizing and accommodating the water that comes into the boat. It is impossible to eradicate it; but it is possible to control it. Rather than trying to prevent water from getting in there (impossible), I came up with a way to manage it. I took off the cushions and pulled out a whole bunch of staples that hold the vinyl to the wood backing. I marked and cut out some square and rectangular holes at the bottom, which overlapped the wood and foam.
View attachment 132476View attachment 132477
The squares are 2.5cm x 2.5cm, and the rectangles are 1.5cm x 2.5cm. I sewed in fiberglass screen patches from behind the cutouts, and re-stapled the vinyl to the backing. This will allow any water that gets in there to drain out the bottom, and make its way to the bilge.
View attachment 132479View attachment 132480View attachment 132481
The wood was not rotting (yet), but had clearly been wet for a long time. I believe it is getting in there every time it rains, through the cover cutout around the wake tower.
Hand-sewing vinyl sucks and my skills are mediocre, but I’m confident the stitches will hold, and the water will drain. If you keep your Scarab outside for the season, have a wake tower and the factory covers; there’s a very good chance your side cushions are like this. Rotting wood sucks and stinks, and I don’t want it in my boat!
Hopefully this helps a few other Scarab folks.

I have same issue - hoping to make some kind of “port” like u did to allow air in and water out to prevent mildew inside seat.