Murphy’s New Clothes

Back at the beginning of this great journey, we met Linda from Troubadour who had made her own dinghy chaps.  Chaps protect the dinghy from sun and abrasion and generally extend it’s life.  Linda was Pam's inspiration to start on our own Murphy the Dinghy chaps.  She helped Pam sort out the steps to get going and gave her sources for materials and ideas.

In November of 2011 we arrived at Shroud Cay in the Bahamas and Pam could hardly wait to pull Murphy ashore so she could pattern the chaps that she was going to make.  

We toiled in the hot sun and headed back to the boat so she could transfer the pattern to the sunbrella fabric that would one day become the chaps.  I had to learn to sleep differently because the shelf that I used to rest my leg sometimes at night, now held rolls of chaps fabric.

Over the years there has been movement and Pam has gone in fits and starts as she gets motivated and then discouraged by the weird curves and openings that have to be taken into account.

Last year, Jan and Pam talked about how to move forward and so she tackled them with a vengeance again. 

Expert advice from Jan

OK... that's it!

Finally, we decided that we would get some help from a professional in Bequia… who made a royal hash of them.  She was almost in tears.

So this year, as I mentioned previously, after thinking about it all summer, and talking to Cathy on Dream Maker, she spent two days below, stitching and bitching and WOW,  look at the results.

So if you need dinghy chaps, you should talk to Pam.  She will tell you to find someone else, buy them somewhere and generally… get lost!

In the sweatshop

First fitting

Not bad... needs a little snugging

Wow... looks great!