Sliding Glass Door Curtain for Mariner

C

capt2stu

Member
Joined
May 3, 2007
RO Number
26139
Messages
51
We have a 1993 Mariner and the cloth pieces holding the curtain in the tracks are falling apart. At first we were just looking for ways to fix it, but since the curtain is not in great shape, we are looking into replacing the curtain either with another curtain or other covering, maybe verticals.

It's tougher on the Mariners with their sliding glass door at an angle. We could get the verticals and have cut to size, but not sure how to rig them so they would go in the track - wouldn't fit right if hanging straight down. Same with another curtain unless could find a replacement made for the Mariner.

Would love to hear what others have done when replacing their curtain.

Thanks,
Stu
 
A few years ago, we ordered the little elastic straps with the plastic that slides in the guide slot from Carver and had the seamstress add them to the new curtain. Unfortunately, I don't remember where, but at the time we also found them at an RV supplier on the internet.
 
This is how our new curtains look on our 30 aft cabin

2007_0423Image0068.jpg

Before we replaced the curtains my wife sewed in new elastic straps.
We got the elastic staps from a sewing shop it comes on a spool and the rollers from an rv shop.
 
PJ - Is that curtain custom made by someone local or did you order it from somewhere?
Jim
 
You can buy several kinds of those plastic strips, as well as a couple different channels at www.sailrite.com

Look under the Curtain Track, Slides, and Hardware section.

I think this is a future project the Admiral has on my list...
 
My 86 Mariner sliding glass door curtain was pretty well shot when I bought the boat. I looked into having another curtain made but ended up having a Sunbrella cover made for the outside of the door. 2 full length vertical zippers at the point where the sliding doors stop in the open position allow me to roll up the middle section and straps at the top to keep the rolled portion up. Keeps the sun and heat out of the cabin, black Sunbrella gives excellent privacy. Installed snaps into the sliding door frame perimeter so I can remove to clean or if a bad blow is headed our way. Smartest thing I ever designed.
 
Stu.
We had a local seamstress sew the curtains. We used a sunbrella type fabric for the lining. But the elastic straps are going bad so my wife will need to sew in some replacements. The replacemen curtains are very heavy so that is a lot of weight for the straps to carry so I can see that they would need to be replaced.
 
cmariner32,
Canvas sounds worth looking into, appreciate the suggestion. Do you have any photos showing the canvas that you could post or email? Last year we rigged up a piece of canvas over the cockpit, works great and didn't cost a lot. For the winter, had a piece made for the bridge instead of shrinkwrapping, plus had them put in cutouts for the bimini so I could take down the canvas when sitting or running when hot out, which I did last week. This looks like it will work great too - no rolling up the plastic and easy to put on the canvas when leaving the boat.

Stu
 
I'll be going down to the boat on Wednesday in preparation for our cruise down the coast on Friday. I'll take some pics and post em for ya.
 
We're heading down from Gulfport to Captiva. Stopping Friday nite at Crows Nest in Venice, then on to South Seas for the weekend and Tween Waters all of next week. This will be the 3rd year we've done this. The admiral has really enjoyed the vacation, however, she recently had an injury to her foot and is hobbling around with a huge boot to keep her foot stable. It should be an interesting time.
 
Sounds awesome, have a great trip! We have driven through the area, but never boated there. We vacationed further north last year (south of Clearwater), but again, not by boat. We would love to some day as the Gulf looks like a great place to spend some time on our boat. We boat in the Chesapeake Bay, looking to go on nice day or overnight trip this weekend to Chestertown or St. Michaels.

Stu
 
Ok...here are pics of the sliding door canvas closed and opened. It's been a long time since I put a pic on here so here's hopin it works.

slidingdoorcanvas1.jpg


slidingdoorcanvas2.jpg
 
Thanks for the pics. Did you put in a seam all the way around? It looks like it, but hard to tell for sure.
 
Not sure what you mean about seam all the way around. The edges are doubled over canvas. There are 3 canvas pieces all sewn together at the top with 2 vertical zippers. The entire perimeter (except for the middle piece bottom) of the canvas has snaps which I drilled the male snap into the aluminum door frame to mount. I had the canvas guy use tenara thread-5 yrs running now still looks good.
 
Not sure what you mean about seam all the way around. The edges are doubled over canvas. There are 3 canvas pieces all sewn together at the top with 2 vertical zippers. The entire perimeter (except for the middle piece bottom) of the canvas has snaps which I drilled the male snap into the aluminum door frame to mount. I had the canvas guy use tenara thread-5 yrs running now still looks good.
 
While looking into the canvas option, I went to the Carver dealer and bought a some of the plastic tabs with the ball on the end to go into the curtain tracks. I then went to a store and bought curtain clips that came with 2 loops attached, the outer one having a an end that fits into the curtain hem. These together were about the same length of the cloth pieces Carver used that were sewed on the original curtains. I replaced the 10 that were bad without having to sew anything, so now the curtain opens and closes okay and covers the whole glass door so at least we have our privacy back. Curtain is a little frayed and eventually needs to be replaced so I will have to do something long term, and I do like the canvas you did, but at least I have it fixed temporarily.

Stu
 
Cmariner, When you are at Tweenwaters take a short trip to Ft. Myers Beach in front of the Lanai Kai. Lots of boat anchored up on weekends. If that is your cup of tea.
 
Stu,
I used cheap mini-blinds. My curtain connection were shot, almost all were dry rotted, everytime I opened or closed the curtain, another one or two would rip. The mini-blind come with "tabs" for the bottom part of the blind. When attached, pull out the slack and it will follow the angle of your glass. You might want to buy a better quality than I did - I went cheap because I wasn't sure how well it would work. I am pretty pleased with the results so far.
 
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