When Should a Textile Specialist Join a Yacht Build or Refit?

Bring a textile specialist into a yacht build or refit at the design stage, before the deck layout is frozen and well before the boat goes anywhere near the water. Covers, bags and textile systems that are specced from the drawings fit better, weigh less and work with the crew rather than against them. That is the working principle behind Race-First Design at Loft Customs in Palma de Mallorca: gear engineered to race-boat standards first (weight, load, material science, fit-in-the-build), then carried across superyachts and premade gear.

If you are running a build or planning a yard period, textiles probably sit near the bottom of a very long list. You are coordinating naval architects, engineers, painters, riggers and electronics teams, and a set of covers feels like something you can sort out once the serious work is done. That instinct is understandable, and it is also how most textile problems start.

A cover commissioned after the boat is finished has to negotiate with every decision already made: hardware placement, halyard runs, hatch clearances, the way the tender sits in its chocks. A cover designed during the build is part of those decisions. It is patterned against real loads, built in materials chosen for the job, and shaped around how people actually move on deck.

This guide covers the new-build window, the refit-season window, what a specialist changes at each stage, and what it costs the project when textiles are left until last. There is a stage-by-stage timeline below so you can see exactly where the work slots in.

Key Insights

Textiles specced during design fit the build instead of fighting it: lighter, tougher and shaped around the crew. The right moment to engage a yacht refit textile specialist is when you book the yard slot, not when the boat splashes, and on a new build it is earlier still, while the boat is drawings. Keep reading for the complete guide.

The New-Build Window: Design Textiles While the Boat Is Still Drawings

On a new build, the textile specialist earns their place before there is a boat to measure. Covers, bags and deck systems are engineering items like everything else on board: they carry loads, they add weight, and they either fit the build or they do not. BJ Simons, who founded Loft Customs in 2014, holds every item to one test: “If it doesn’t make the boat faster or the crew’s life easier, it doesn’t go on board.” That test is easy to apply at the drawing stage and expensive to apply afterwards.

Working from drawings is not a compromise, and Loft has proved it at the extreme end. When travel stopped in COVID, Loft built the full cover set for Skorpios, a ClubSwan 125 in Finland, entirely remotely from the drawings and communication. “Everything fit,” as BJ puts it. If a complete cover set can be built for a ClubSwan 125 from documentation alone, your project’s textiles can certainly be designed while the hull is still in the shed.

The deeper reason to start early is the crew. An embedded designer thinks about the people who will live with the gear, and BJ describes exactly how that plays out: “They say, we want a rope-tail bag, this big, like that. And I go: if I was a trimmer, I’d put my foot there, so we can’t put it there; we’ll move it.” That judgement changes where things go on deck, and it only helps while positions can still move.

Involved early, a specialist reviews the deck plan for textile consequences, flags hardware placements that will make covers awkward or short-lived, and specs materials against the loads each item will see. The result is gear that arrives at launch already resolved, rather than a punch-list item chasing a finished boat.

• Loft Customs built the full cover set for Skorpios, a ClubSwan 125 in Finland, entirely remotely from the drawings and communication when travel stopped in COVID, and everything fit.
• Race-First Design means textiles engineered to race-boat standards first: weight, load, material science and fit-in-the-build.
• Early involvement means deck-gear decisions and textile design happen together, so covers and bags are designed with the hardware rather than squeezed around it.

The Refit Window: Book the Specialist When You Book the Yard

For a refit, the practical answer is simple: bring the textile specialist in when you book the yard, at scope definition, not during reassembly. Independent refit guidance backs this up. Foreland Marine’s project-management guide starts every refit with “a detailed condition survey of the vessel” and recommends holding 10 to 15 per cent of the base budget in contingency, precisely because work discovered late costs more than work planned early. Textiles belong in that scope document alongside the paint and the rig, not on the snag list.

There is a scheduling reason too. Refit seasons compress everyone’s calendar at once, and a workshop worth using will be honest about its capacity. BJ is blunt on this: “We pride ourselves on saying no. We’ll most likely deliver before, but we won’t promise a date we can’t keep.” His companion rule is shorter still: “No deposit, no slot.” An honest timeline you can plan around beats a flattering one you cannot, and early booking is what makes honest timelines possible. If a yard period is on your calendar, start the brief before the slot fills.

What does the specialist actually change at refit stage? Patterning, first: templating off the real boat before it disappears under scaffolding, and off the drawings for any new hardware going in. Material selection, second. Loft builds with Weathermax and Serge Ferrari technical fabrics, including Soltis mesh, and uses ECOPAK EPLX by Challenge Sailcloth for its waterproof spinnaker sail bags: 100% waterproof laminated construction, lightweight, high tear strength from 45-degree CrossPly reinforcement, a UV-resistant matte film backing, and 100% recycled polyester with a PFAS-free (C0 DWR) finish.

Matching material to job is the craft. EPLX 400 offers roughly twice the abrasion resistance of standard 420-denier nylon, which matters for a bag that gets dragged across non-skid daily and not at all for one that lives in a locker. That is the kind of call a specialist makes item by item, and by Loft’s own published figure, approximately 90% of those who receive an estimate follow through to the build.

• Loft Customs builds with Weathermax and Serge Ferrari technical fabrics, including Soltis mesh.
• ECOPAK EPLX by Challenge Sailcloth is a 100% waterproof laminated construction in 100% recycled polyester with a PFAS-free (C0 DWR) finish; EPLX 400 offers roughly twice the abrasion resistance of standard 420-denier nylon.
• Independent refit guidance recommends defining the full work scope at the condition-survey stage and holding 10 to 15 per cent of the base budget in contingency.

What Happens When Textiles Are the Afterthought

Leave textiles until last and every one of them inherits the project’s leftover constraints. The cover has to clear a cleat that could have sat 50 millimetres further outboard. The bag hangs where a trimmer needs to stand. Chafe points multiply because the fabric meets hardware nobody considered when the hardware went in. None of these are failures of sewing. They are failures of sequence.

The scale of the problem grows with the boat. A full Loft Customs package can include 70 or more items, and coordinating that many pieces retrospectively, each one negotiating with a finished deck, is a very different job from designing them into the build. BJ draws the line plainly: “Others make covers; Loft makes gear.” Gear is designed into a system. Covers, in the late-order sense, are draped over one.

The stakes are asymmetric, which is what makes the sequencing error so expensive. Think of an 800-euro cover protecting a 10,000-euro investment underneath: when the cover fits badly, chafes through or blows out early, the loss is rarely the cover. It is the varnish, the electronics, the sail or the winch it was supposed to protect, plus the crew time spent fighting gear that never quite worked.

Done in sequence, the same money buys a different outcome. “Aesthetics and functionality are the driving factors of what I design,” BJ says, and both are decided early: functionality by patterning against real loads and real hands, aesthetics by choosing fabrics and lines that belong to the boat rather than apologising for arriving late. The afterthought cover and the designed-in cover can look similar on the invoice. They do not look similar after a season.

• A full Loft Customs package can include 70 or more items, from winch covers through to complete deck systems.
• A late-specced cover must work around finalised hardware; an early-specced cover is designed with it.
• The stakes are asymmetric: for example, an 800-euro cover protecting a 10,000-euro investment underneath.

The Short Version

The pattern is the same on a 40-foot race boat and a 100-metre superyacht: textiles designed inside the project fit, last and get used, while textiles bolted on at the end spend their lives compromising. If you are planning a build or a refit, put the textile conversation in the scope document, next to the paint and the rig. Loft Customs works from drawings, from surveys and from the boat itself, at the base in Palma or remotely, and the earlier the brief starts, the better the gear gets.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should a yacht refit textile specialist join the project?

A yacht refit textile specialist should join at scope definition, when the condition survey is done and the yard slot is being booked, and on a new build at the design stage while the boat is still drawings. Early involvement lets covers, bags and textile systems be engineered against real loads and hardware rather than retrofitted around finished decisions, which is the core of Loft Customs’ Race-First Design approach.

Can textile systems really be designed before the boat exists?

Yes. When travel stopped in COVID, Loft Customs built the full cover set for Skorpios, a ClubSwan 125 in Finland, entirely remotely from the drawings and communication. “Everything fit,” as founder BJ Simons puts it. Accurate drawings plus disciplined communication are enough to pattern and build a complete set.

What materials will a textile specialist actually specify?

Loft Customs builds with Weathermax and Serge Ferrari technical fabrics, including Soltis mesh, and uses ECOPAK EPLX by Challenge Sailcloth for waterproof spinnaker sail bags: a 100% waterproof laminated construction, lightweight, with high tear strength from 45-degree CrossPly reinforcement, a UV-resistant matte film backing and 100% recycled polyester with a PFAS-free (C0 DWR) finish. The point of early involvement is matching those materials to the loads and handling each item will actually see.

Does early involvement matter for small items like rope bags?

Yes, because small items live closest to the crew. BJ Simons describes the difference an embedded designer makes: “They say, we want a rope-tail bag, this big, like that. And I go: if I was a trimmer, I’d put my foot there, so we can’t put it there; we’ll move it.” That judgement only helps if it arrives before positions are fixed.

Want to Learn More?

Every Loft Customs brief draws on BJ Simons’ three Alinghi America’s Cup campaigns (2003, 2007, 2010) as a sailmaker, followed by five years on the Grand Prix circuit (Ran, Bella Mente, SailGP, Cannonball). That is the standard your covers get, whatever you sail.

Citations

• Challenge Sailcloth: EPLX Collection (construction, recycled content, C0 DWR, CrossPly and abrasion data)
• WeatherMax: WeatherMAX 80 (fabric weight and marine cover positioning)
• Foreland Marine: Refit Project Management, What to Expect (condition-survey scoping and contingency guidance)

Related Reading

• Race-First Design: the method behind the gear
• The Process: how a Loft Customs project runs
• Superyacht Solutions: full textile packages
• The Honours List: boats we have built for
• Can a Full Yacht Cover Set Be Made Remotely From CAD Drawings?
• What Does a Full Superyacht Textile Package Include?
• How Do I Choose a Custom Canvas Supplier in Palma?