The vinyl seating in the cockpit of the boat was showing signs of age and starting to crack in some areas.  It still looked OK from a distance, but I figured it would only get worst year-after-year.  I had done some upholstery work about 10 years ago on my Formula 242 and figured that I could try my hand at making new vinyl ‘skins’ for the F-330 as well.

In learning from my past experience using a household machine, I realized that I needed to get a sewing machine that was really meant for vinyl upholstery work.  My research and searching resulted in getting a Consew 206RB-4, which is one of the better machines for upholstery work.  I also got some spare vinyl and made a few sample pieces

It looked like I could do a decent job of making new seating.  Now to pick out some materials for the job.

The vinyl used on Formula boats is/was Nautolex brand.  Given that the boat was 24 years old, some of the colors/patterns were no longer available.  4 colors total - white, pink, purple, green.  I wanted to stay with the same basic color scheme, since the cockpit seating matched the hull graphics and I did not want to open that can of worms.

I was able to find the exact pink from a local shop and I did some color matching of the others.  The most difficult was the green, and I ended up going with a slightly darker shade than original.

The color matches are below . . .

I ordered about 30 yards of material from various online suppliers.  Next steps were to remove the seating from the boat . . .

Some of the seat frames, being wood, were rotting and would need repair/replacement.

Go to the next page of re-upholstery, showing the process of taking the vinyl ‘skin’ apart and re-making them.