Hey everyone, I have a Mainship 30 in SW FL and I was considering snap in carpet for the helm seating area. "Seadek" a foam type flooring in different patterns and colors was suggested. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with either one,durability,costs,etc. Any thoughts are appreciated.Thanks
If helm carpeting was an original Mainship option, Gioia Sails will likely have your templates.
That said...
We replaced our original exterior cockpit and bridge carpet -- in stages -- with new Berber with Sunbrella binding, and AquaLoc vinyl backing from Corinthian Marine Carpet (Corinthian Textile Solutions).
At the same times, we also had some runners made from the same stuff for a couple interior spaces, covering the existing Amtico flooring in the galley and the head... mostly for the cushioning... but it also seems to add a little continuity to the boat, too.
(I had to make templates. Gioia had the templates, but their cost for the same carpet -- first buying from Corinthian (and marked up) and then doing the cutting/sewing/binding -- would have been more expensive.)
Our original exterior carpet had some kind of black rubber backing, pain in the ar$e as it deteriorated -- and I still have a couple spots in the cockpit where it hasn't come up yet even with some serious cleaning. Haven't tried the Dremel tool on it yet...
Anyway, the oldest segments of our replacement carpets are in the cockpit; we put those down in Spring of 2012 and they still look almost new. We just put it back down (after winter, and then our short fishing season) yesterday, and the backing material still looks new. The "almost" is because I noticed a short area yesterday where the binding needs re-stitched.
Cleaning is usually just a quick power wash (electric version), although we've also used the carpet shampooer -- once, I think.
It dries "relatively" quickly after a rain, if given full sunlight. During the boating season we never bother to temporarily remove and store just because of impending weather. We also seldom use the snaps (in fact, never, on the bridge); the carpet doesn't move around much...
-Chris