About American Marine Canvas & Upholstery: South Florida Marine Specialists
Most South Florida yacht owners find out their canvas is wrong the same way: something fails, and then when they ask a professional shop to assess the rest of it, the professional tells them everything is wrong. The Sunbrella cover they thought they had turns out to be a polyester blend that has already surrendered half its UV resistance. The bimini frame they thought was solid has galvanic corrosion at the bow pocket fittings. The Strataglass enclosure that was installed two years ago has stress cracks at the forward panel attachment points because the tensioning did not account for South Florida heat cycles. None of it was visible at installation. All of it is visible now.
American Marine was built to prevent that outcome. The canvas, upholstery, and interior work that leaves this shop is fabricated from materials specified for this market, sewn with thread that will not rot in South Florida UV and salt, and installed by craftspeople whose default is to do it correctly rather than quickly.
American Marine provides custom marine canvas, yacht upholstery, and interior fabrication to yacht owners across Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and the surrounding South Florida waterways. Every project is built with Sunbrella or Stamoid canvas fabric, Strataglass clear vinyl, Tenara PTFE thread, and marine-grade 316 stainless hardware — materials appropriate to the specific performance demands of year-round South Florida boating.
Who We Are
American Marine is a marine canvas and upholstery fabrication shop serving yacht owners, captains, and vessel managers in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and the broader South Florida coastal market. We have been doing this work in this environment long enough to have clear opinions about what materials perform here and what ones fail — and those opinions show up in every quote we write.
The South Florida marine environment punishes shortcuts. A UV index that averages 9.7 from March through October means canvas degrades here at roughly 30 to 40 percent the rate it does in mid-Atlantic or Pacific Northwest markets. Salt air loads corrosion onto hardware from every direction, year-round, with no off-season. Hurricane season — June 1 through November 30 — adds the question of whether your covers will hold a tropical storm or become projectiles at the first named storm. Fabrication that is adequate in a seasonal market is inadequate here.
We work on vessels from center consoles to large sportfishers, motoryachts, and sailboats. For vessels transiting through Fort Lauderdale — arriving from the Caribbean for a US refit, or transiting the ICW for a winter season — we coordinate project timelines with captains and vessel managers directly. Many of our work-in-transit clients time canvas and upholstery scope to coincide with other service calls at the 17th Street Causeway boatyard corridor.
What We Fabricate
Custom marine canvas: Bimini tops (frame and fabric), cockpit and flybridge enclosures, mooring covers, trailering covers, dodgers, sail covers and stack packs, hatch covers, and miscellaneous canvas accessories. Fabricated from Sunbrella or Stamoid with Tenara PTFE thread and YKK or Riri marine-grade zippers throughout.
Strataglass enclosures: Full cockpit, helm station, and flybridge enclosure systems with Strataglass clear vinyl panels. Strataglass is the optical-grade clear vinyl standard for South Florida enclosures — higher UV inhibition, better clarity over service life, and longer service life than standard marine vinyl. Correct tensioning during installation is the craft variable that determines whether a Strataglass panel stays clear or develops stress cracks. We account for South Florida's thermal expansion range in every installation.
Marine upholstery: Helm seat cushions and bolsters, cockpit cushions and backrests, flybridge seating, salon and cabin upholstery, headliners, and sun pad replacements. We specify closed-cell foam and UV-stable marine vinyl as standard — not upgrades. Interior upholstery receives antimicrobial treatment for South Florida's wet-season humidity conditions.
Yacht interior and flooring: Synthetic teak on cockpit soles, flybridge, and swim platforms. Marine LVP and carpet for salon and cabin interior applications. Full interior soft goods refits coordinated with haul-out and refit schedules.
Working on a South Florida yacht project?
Request a quote at american-marine.com/contact-us | We come to your marina for measurement
The Materials That Define the Work
The materials decision is the product. Two shops can fabricate what looks like identical canvas work — same scope, comparable turnaround, similar price — and have chosen fundamentally different materials that will produce fundamentally different service-life outcomes in South Florida conditions. The materials that matter:
Sunbrella: Solution-dyed acrylic with a Glen Raven 10-year fade and weathering warranty. The correct base specification for South Florida canvas. The solution-dyed formulation means color is locked into the fiber rather than surface-coated — it holds up under South Florida UV loading in a way that polyester blends and olefin-based fabrics do not.
Stamoid: PVC-coated polyester with higher water resistance than Sunbrella and slightly less breathability. The correct choice for enclosure panels, cockpit covers with standing-water exposure, and dodgers where waterproofing is the primary requirement over UV breathability.
Strataglass: Optical-grade clear vinyl with UV inhibitors in the formulation. The standard for South Florida enclosure windows. Standard marine vinyl hazes in South Florida UV within two to three years. Strataglass held under correct tension maintains optical clarity for years. The tension specification and the material are equally important — one does not substitute for the other.
Tenara PTFE thread: PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) thread is completely impervious to UV radiation and salt water. Standard polyester thread degrades under sustained South Florida UV loading and can produce seam failure before the fabric has reached end of life. Tenara thread is the correct specification. We use it throughout.
316 marine stainless hardware: Snaps, zippers, D-rings, and fittings in 316 marine stainless. The corrosion resistance difference between 316 stainless and standard hardware in Broward County's salt environment is one to two seasons of service life. We do not use subgrade hardware where it matters.
Service Area
American Marine is based in Broward County and serves the Fort Lauderdale coastal market — including Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Hallandale Beach, and the surrounding communities. We also work with vessels at Port Everglades and the Marina Mile boatyard corridor for transit and refit project work. Measurement and installation visits are conducted at the vessel's current marina or boatyard. Fabrication is done in-shop.
South Florida canvas and upholstery — custom fabrication for the conditions here.
american-marine.com/contact-us | Broward County and Fort Lauderdale coastal market
Frequently Asked Questions
What fabrics do you use for marine canvas?
Sunbrella solution-dyed acrylic as the base specification. Stamoid for applications prioritizing water resistance over breathability. Strataglass for all clear vinyl enclosure windows. Tenara PTFE thread throughout all canvas work.
Do you come to the marina or does the vessel need to come in?
Measurement and installation are done at your marina or boatyard — we come to the vessel. Fabrication is done at our Broward County shop. Most projects require one measurement visit and one installation visit, with an intermediate fitting session for complex enclosures.
When is the best time to book canvas work?
April and May for work needed before hurricane season. August and September for work needed for FLIBS and the fall season. Projects can be scheduled year-round, but those windows fill ahead of the demand surge. Booking four to six weeks ahead of your target date is the safe approach.
Do you handle canvas and upholstery as a combined project?
Yes, and for cockpit refits this is the efficient approach. A coordinated enclosure, cockpit cushion set, and helm seat project is sequenced and scheduled as a single scope rather than multiple separate visits. We prefer the combined scope.
What is the typical turnaround on a cockpit enclosure?
Three to four weeks from measurement to installation for a standard cockpit enclosure on a mid-size vessel. Complex multi-zone enclosure systems run longer. We provide a specific timeline estimate with every written quote.
Custom canvas and upholstery built for the way South Florida treats boats.
