Custom boat canvas

What Annie sews for your boat

Annie cuts every piece of canvas to a pattern taken from your boat. No catalog, no standard template, no rough cut adjusted after the fact. The pattern is taken on site when the boat is accessible, or built from an old cover supplied by the client. Every piece is sewn by hand on the shop's industrial machine, in marine polyester thread, with hemmed finishes.

Four categories cover most of what comes through the shop. The full boat cover wraps the whole boat for winter storage or transport, cut close to the deck with straps and grommets in the right places. The cockpit cover closes the cockpit of a sailboat or powerboat when the boat stays at the dock, cut as close as possible to the dodger or windshield. The top, whether it's an engine hatch cover or a fold-down top for a bowrider or cabin cruiser, needs a three-dimensional cut; for sun protection over the cockpit, the custom bimini is its own piece, covered on its own page. The console cover protects the dashboard of a bowrider or center console. Sailboat, powerboat, pontoon, bowrider: every type of boat comes through.

What's inside the boat is a separate page. Custom boat cushions cover the seats, benches and V-berth, including the wooden base under the seat when it has had it. On sport boats, canvas and seats often go out together in the same quote.

This is new-build work. Annie doesn't repair the old canvas: she uses it as a pattern, or improves on the original lines if they were off, then sews you a new piece on the industrial machine. The old canvas goes back home with you or to recycling.

Canvas, thread and hardware: the material that holds up

A boat canvas only lasts if the material is right.

The main canvas is a solution-dyed acrylic. The color is worked into the fiber before weaving, not printed on the surface afterward, and that's what lets the canvas stand up to sun and salt water without fading or breaking down. Sunbrella canvas is the category benchmark, and Annie uses it when the project calls for it. Other solution-dyed acrylics of equivalent quality are also accepted. Annie works with a network of Quebec suppliers and picks the material to fit the project, not to fit an exclusive brand: the material follows the need.

Thread matters as much as canvas. Annie sews with a UV-stable marine polyester thread, built not to break down in the sun. Cotton thread gives out within a few seasons. General-purpose polyester holds a bit longer, but not in a marine environment. Seams are double-stitched, two passes instead of one, so the seam doesn't open if one thread breaks. Edges are hemmed, and every stress point gets a sewn reinforcement: grommets, straps, corners exposed to wind.

Hardware is marine grade and stainless. Grommets are brass or stainless steel, straps mount on stainless buckles, zippers are marine-grade YKK or equivalent, snaps are brass or stainless depending on the piece. No galvanized parts, no bare steel, nothing that could rust in the first season.

From quote to delivery: how it works

If you call today for a custom boat canvas, here's what happens next. One artisan, from quote to delivery: Annie runs every project start to finish, no handoffs, no internal subcontracting. Five steps, sometimes six, in the same order every time.

First contact, by phone or email. Annie listens, then asks two or three targeted questions about the boat and the piece you need (boat type, year, rough dimensions, use). Next comes the pattern, taken either directly on the boat (shop by appointment, Rive-Nord de Montréal, or a visit within the service area when the boat can't travel), or from an old canvas you supply that serves as the template. A written quote follows, priced per project: canvas, thread, hardware, fabrication, delivery. You get it by email.

Fabrication happens at the shop. Pattern, cutting, sewing, finishing, quality control: everything passes through the same hands, in the same Rive-Nord shop. Then installation on the boat when it's accessible, or delivery of the finished piece to you, with a first fitting and adjustments if needed. Annie stays reachable after installation, to adjust a fastener or answer a care question in the first season. From quote to installation, you talk to the same person.

Who Annie works with: area and clients

Annie works with individual boat owners: sailboat, powerboat, pontoon, bowrider, cabin cruiser. Every type, no specialization by model. The service area is Rive-Nord de Montréal (where the shop is based), Laval, the Saint-Laurent, the Laurentides and Lanaudière. Lac des Deux Montagnes, Lac Saint-Louis, the Saint-Laurent River, the lakes of the Laurentides: most of the boats Annie covers sail there. For an exceptional project, up to about 2.5 hours' drive.

Annie also works regularly as a subcontractor for marinas and restoration shops. Cockpit covers, boat covers, cabin upholstery, custom biminis: one call, one quote, and it's handled. The piece goes back ready to install, or Annie comes out to install it if the shop asks for that. You keep the client, Annie does the work. A lot of marinas in the Rive-Nord and the Laurentides work with her that way.

The shop also works in classic auto: leather seats, interior trim, full refection. That's what sets Annie apart from a canvas-only shop. In the morning, the same hands sew a boat canvas. In the afternoon, they rebuild a Mustang leather seat. For classic car interior restoration, it's the same artisan, the same shop, the same pattern discipline. Two specialties, one person to call.

Common questions

Request a quote for your canvas

Custom boat canvas, made by hand by Annie, shop by appointment in Rive-Nord de Montréal. For a quote, a call or an email is enough. Annie looks at the project, prepares the pattern, and builds the canvas to fit your boat.