Carver Owners Forum

Has anyone out there found a canvas color that is cooler than another.I have had black, and white....and now a tan color that I swear is hotter underneath than the black....the forum is open for opinions on canvas colors...

My 28' Voyager has burgandy colored ; bridge cover, top bimini enclosure ,windshield covers, and cockpit bimini in Sunbrella material. I don't like the color and am thinking of changing all to black soon.

Under equal conditions and the same fabric, I suspect as with anything else, the darker the colour the more it will absorb the sun's rays rather than reflect them as lighter colours would. I know folks that have had white canvas and while they thought is was the coolest they've experienced, they found it to be the hardest colour to keep clean and eventually gave it up for a darker colour that doesn't show the dirt so easily.

Off-white and light tan all do pretty well. Navy, burgundy, red, black are hot. Light green and light blue seem to be less hot than some other infrared colors. Heat is toward the infrared side of the spectrum - red-orange-yellow. The other end Blue-Violet are less likely to emit heat - but dark will always be hotter than light. We changed our canvas from Navy to Capri - Capri is a lighter blue (lighter than the popular Pacific Blue) and there is a big difference in temperature underneath.

Got any pics of your boat with the burgundy canvas? We're trying to decide what color will work best for us.

Doh! Just realized this post is a couple years old. Still interested though.

bud37 wrote:Source of the post Has anyone out there found a canvas color that is cooler than another.I have had black, and white....and now a tan color that I swear is hotter underneath than the black....the forum is open for opinions on canvas colors...

Bump....have now contracted to get new canvas with the rear extension for the Mariner...have to wait till next year as guy is booked till then.......so the original color is something called toast, just looking maybe some other options as we have ruled out seamark, it will probably be sunbrella, but I am still wrestling with the heat that comes thru the top ( getting old with some issues )....opinions...

I have a serious preference for black canvas on boats, timeless and just looks great on any of them unless you have a different coloured hull that clashes with it. My previous boat had a perfectly good tan top when I purchased it. Swapped it out in the first few months of ownership to black.

That being said, there are 2 Mariners at our marina, both have black canvas and look great. If I go there this weekend I will snap a few pictures for you of the one with the rear extension as I am sure there are quite a few variations on this depending on who does the work just like mine, never saw a 41cmy with a rear canvas extension as it was custom made and never offered from the factory.

Hans, I totally agree on the black...all of our boats have had black canvas so far until this one.....and I cant get past the heat under it.....oddly enuf the fibreglass color on the boat seems a bit on the biege side, not quite white so I have a year to decide....I was hoping to find something that cuts the uv going thru the top material.....thanks in advance for the pics.......I think I have looked at every pic on yacht world etc ....

I'd think that most of the heat gain is not through the canvas but through the clear vinyl

One more thing. I had the rear extension canvas made up of Sunbrella, no vinyl whatsoever. The large rear section does zip open to a large mosquito screen. Reason I did this is canvas can be folded up easily and stuffed under a seat unlike vinyl that needs TLC all the time. Being it is the rear extension, we tend to remove the back and sides when we get there almost immediately or the next morning and only put it back on if there is going to be a hard rain or when we leave the boat. Great decision I made and do not regret it one bit.

Just realised I have no picture of the rear sides and back installed in my album, will correct that. In the mean time, this is a shot from the inside from the on board camera live about 5 mins ago.



Another from the mid cockpit.