10 Reasons Dinghy Chaps Are Important

What are dinghy chaps?  Why are they important?  Why would I want to spend good money for some fabric to go over my beautiful dinghy?

In this post, I’m gonna answer these questions and hopefully clearly explain why those bits of fabric are so important….you should not have a dinghy without them!  Keep reading:

Simply put, dinghy chaps are protective fabric or other material fitted over the inflatable (or plastic/aluminum) tubes of a dinghy or tender.   The more abrasion resistant and sun protective the fabric is….the better.  And…if it dries quickly without shrinking that would be a huge bonus too….like heavy duty sunbrella fabric.

This is a subject near and dear to my heart, as I am a proponent of buying quality stuff….taking care of it and keeping it for a long time.  A dinghy or tender can be an expensive investment akin to a car….like a car for a boat.  In early 2018 we bought our second cruising sailboat and decided that we were going cruising in 2019.  But the boat we bought didn’t have a dinghy so we went dinghy shopping.  This was a rude awakening for little old us…on a budget with both of us about to retire.  In that large swanky dinghy store in San Diego…they pointed out a slightly more experienced (used/older) dinghy that did eventually meet our price point.  We bought it but heeded their warning that we would need to take care of it or we would be buying a new dinghy in exotic places (we did this eventually).  Taking care of that dinghy meant giving it a full coating of liquid sun protection and vowing to get the dinghy some custom chaps as soon as possible.  We looked at professional chaps for the dinghy….to the tune of $500.  No thanks, we would make our own.

Enter my argument for a Sailrite Ultrafeed sewing machine…which we bought.  From then on….I was on the hook to make those damn dinghy chaps.  But first I needed to learn to sew.  I needed to slow down and make sure my measurements actually fit the dinghy and that I had the right material.  I would end up making multiple trips to the Upholstery Fabric Outlet (UFO) in Chula Vista, where they would soon learn my name and answer a lot of my dumb questions.  Slowly, I was able to find a good pattern and clear instructions for making the chaps (on the Sailrite website) and did a lot of internet research on exactly how to sew multiple layers of industrial sunbrella together with various pieces of tough cordura fabrics to take lots of abrasion.

Here’s some examples of how good dinghy chaps should look:

Hmmm….no matter how many times I measured, cut or checked the chaps against the dinghy….mine just didn’t cover the whole dinghy tubes, failed to stay on the back of the dinghy correctly and didn’t go over every hole, nook and cranny correctly.  This was a bummer because I actually spent a lot of time measuring twice and cutting several times….looking to make a nice enough product.

What I did make was ugly, functional and barely fit.  But I watched a Great Dane and two kids get in and out of that dinghy in calm water and large breaking waves….and that cover held and stayed.  The cover I made would protect our dinghy for four years…until the dinghy developed air leaks to the point it was sinking and we had to buy a new dinghy….in Acapulco (not the best place to dinghy shop).

10 Reasons Dinghy Chaps Are Important

1. UV Protection– Dinghy chaps will protect the dinghy or tender from sun degradation. 

2. Temperature Control– Dinghy chaps will keep darker rubber or PVC tubes cooler under constant sun.

3. Human Protection–  Dinghy chaps will keep your naked ass from burning on the dinghy tubes.

4. Storage– I know you sew better than me…so you can put pockets or hidden compartments in your dinghy chaps.  Or you can buy them this way….with storage or perhaps a custom beer koozi.  

5. Abrasion Resistance– Yep, this one is huge.  Take a look at the chaps I made.  Even after four years of cruising, those chaps were still in great shape and abrasion resistance was key to this.  You have no idea how many times we flopped back on board our dinghy after snorkeling with gear, leg knives, spear guns…and abrasion resistance was key to protecting the dinghy tubes.   Then there was the Great Dane with her gnarly toenails climbing into and out of the dinghy.

6. Sales Value– You may not think of this one….but it’s important to me.  When I go onboard a boat for sale or see boats for sale, I look at the dinghy to see if the owners protected their stuff…including their dinghy.   It’s the little things.

7. Custom Project– There are no mass designed dinghy chaps you can go out and buy….cause so many dinghies and tenders have different handles, gear, tie down points ect.  This is exciting to me, cause it means you will get custom dinghy chaps made for your own dinghy that belong to no one else….just you.

8. Finding your dinghy in a crowd–  Yep, I’ve tested this one out and dinghy chaps were KEY to actually getting back to our boat.  Why?  Cause when you are on a dinghy dock with roughly 30-40 other dinghies and it’s late at night and the kids are tired and you just want to get back to the boat….finding your own dinghy and getting that engine started can be the thin line between heartache and triumph.  Trust me….memorize your own dinghy chaps.  

9. Stuff that gets on a dinghy– Whether you are the cleanest boater around or not so much….if you operate a dinghy from a boat long enough, there might be stuff that gets on the dinghy and it’s better to get it on the dinghy chaps.  I mean stuff like sand, old oil from flip flops, blood, salt water, exhaust soot and various other things…..you know what I mean.  So please, make sure that dinghy is covered by the chaps….keep it in good shape.

10. Thieving– This one is the actual reason I made the dinghy chaps for my own dinghy.  I wanted to do the very best job I could to impress my wife that I could actually do a project better than 70%…..it didn’t work.  The project came out at about 65% at best.  But the upside to this was our chaps were not fitted well, they didn’t cover the dinghy tubes completely and they could not stay on the stern of the dinghy….like hardly ever.   But I think thieves look at dinghies like the ones in the pics above…instead of messed up chaps and an outboard with weird paint and off-color stickers.

-One school of thought I’ve heard is to make your dinghy as LOUD and eye catching as possible….so it’s easily identified if it’s taken by anyone.  This was like the dinghy I grew up with as a kid….the dinghy chaps were yellow.  

-The second school of thought is to make your dinghy (and possibly engine) look as messed up and old as possible.  This is kind of what I was going for with our dinghy…except it was kind of real.  So my dinghy chaps didn’t fit well and often were half off.  The dinghy had website stickers in it and the engine was scratched, painted a bit and had stickers on it.

Whatever you do…I think the best way not to get a dinghy stolen is to bring it up at night….period.  We brought our dinghy up every night no matter where we were.  Several times this proved important as we had to move in the middle of the night because of swells….and our dinghy was already up and secured so we didn’t worry about it.  AND…..it’s best practice in my mind NOT to put your boat name or your own name on the dinghy.  This way….folks don’t know that you are not on your boat.

I’ve been writing this blog since 2014.  It started as a travel and sailing blog but turned into a website that tries to help folks (like you) realize that if we can do it…you can do it.  And if we can help you not make all the dumb mistakes we’ve made…then it’s a win.  LF2SF strives to be independent and cruising/travel related with posts that will appeal to a cross-section of readers.  If you’re still reading…have a great day and thanks for reading.

Here’s a few of the early stories that might mention the dinghy chaps: 

Constant Improvements on Tulum 5

Projects Coming Together

Projects and Purchases Right Before We Left-