Your chief stew asks you to find out what the sundeck cushions are made of and who supplied them. Nobody knows. The yard handover file is in a crate in the lazarette under three years of spare parts. If you cannot answer that question, you cannot clean, repair or replace a single cushion with confidence.
The authoritative documents
The yacht's own paperwork outranks anything you read online, and it outranks your last boat.
- The fabric schedule — the interior designer's list of every fabric, leather and covering: room, item, supplier, product name, colourway, width, composition, cleaning code and care instruction.
- The yard maintenance file / owner's manual — handed over at delivery, containing the schedule, supplier contacts, care cards and often offcuts.
- The interior designer's specification — the intent behind the choices, and the reference if a fabric must be matched or replaced.
If the file is missing, that is a job, not an excuse. Ask the chief stew, then the management company, then the yard's interior department, then the original suppliers. Rebuild it and keep it — digitally and in hard copy — with photographs and, where you can get them, offcuts.
Indoor fabric and marine outdoor fabric are different animals
| Indoor / interior fabric | Marine outdoor fabric | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical fibre | Wool, silk, linen, viscose, velvet, leather | Solution-dyed acrylic, polyester, marine vinyl, technical mesh |
| Colour | Surface- or piece-dyed; UV fades it | Solution-dyed — pigment through the fibre; far more UV stable |
| Water | Usually water-hostile; codes matter | Designed to be rinsed; drains and dries |
| Finish | Often a soil or stain repellent that wears off | Water-repellent and mould-inhibiting finishes that also wear off |
| Enemy | Water, sun, alkali, abrasion | Sunscreen oils, salt build-up, mildew in trapped damp, solvents |
- Never move an indoor fabric outside "just for the charter". An indoor cushion on a sundeck will fade, mildew and be ruined in one season.
- Outdoor fabric is not stain-proof. Sunscreen still stains it, and mould still grows in the damp foam beneath it.
- Outdoor water-repellent finishes are consumed by cleaning and UV. They must be reproofed to the maker's schedule — that is a planned maintenance item, not a whim.
Onboard Notes
Keep the fabric schedule where the interior crew can reach it in seconds — laminated by space, or on a tablet. Log every clean, every treatment and every product against the item. A bespoke fabric may be discontinued by the time you need it, so knowing exactly what it is, who made it and where the offcuts are stored is the difference between a repair and a refit.