Andy placed his order for a custom cover. John, seeing a new cover request come through, sent the standard opening question: could you send some photos of your BBQ?

It wasn't a BBQ. Andy set him straight immediately.

John asked for photos. Andy sent two shots of the boat — the helm console and jockey seats clearly visible. He included a rough initial measurement: from the front bench seat to the top of the windscreen was approximately 85cm.

John reviewed the photos, created an initial design diagram, and did something unusual. He offered Andy a free upgrade.

The standard fabric is Polyester 600D. But looking at the boat — exposed on the water, salt air, UV, rain — John recommended the NylonSafe 420D instead. Lighter. 100% waterproof. No extra charge.

He also flagged the first technical point: the depth measurement looked like it had been taken from the front. John recommended remeasuring from the top side for accuracy.

Andy confirmed he'd be back at the boat on Monday. The project paused for two days.

Andy returned with more numbers: bench seat height 56cm, depth 42cm, and the distance from the centre windshield bar to the console edge approximately 30cm.

Good progress — but John had a follow-up. The depth dimension needed clarification. Was the front seat included in the overall depth measurement, or separate? He sent a diagram showing exactly what he meant, labelled with points A and B.

Clear. The cover needed to protect everything: helm console, centre section, and all seats including the front bench. This was a complex shape spanning the full beam of the boat.

John sent revised diagrams based on Andy's updated measurements. Andy reviewed them carefully. He spotted an error immediately.

The diagram showed the cover as 110cm long × 250cm wide. It needed to be the opposite: 250cm long × 110cm wide. The dimensions were transposed — length and width swapped.

This is exactly why design approval exists before production starts. A cover cut to those inverted dimensions would be unusable. No re-cut, no re-ship — just a short conversation catching the issue before any fabric is touched.

John apologised, went back to the drawings, and sent annotated photos requesting the correct measurements needed to fix it.

Andy came back with the complete set. Eleven dimensions — every section of the console, windshield, seats, and surround — labelled A through K.

A=93cm, B=190cm, C=93cm, D=106cm, E=55cm, F=180cm, G=97cm, H=113cm, I=110cm, J=42cm, K=56cm.

That's a significantly more complex measurement set than a standard flat cover. But that complexity is the point — a center console layout with jockey seats, a helm station, and a centre windshield bar can't be captured in three numbers.

John issued the final production diagrams the same day. Andy had them within hours.

Andy reviewed the final diagrams overnight. He spotted one more thing he'd missed in his measurements — and flagged it before approving.

There was a handrail on the back of the rear seats. His measurements hadn't accounted for it. With the handrail included, the total length needed to increase from 250cm to 260cm.

He sent a photo of the handrail. John confirmed the change. Ten centimetres added. Scheduled for production.

Without the design approval process, that handrail would have been discovered when the cover arrived and failed to fit over it. Instead, it was caught before a single stitch was made.

Twenty days after design approval, the cover arrived. Andy's message was three words and a thumbs up.

NylonSafe 420D. 100% waterproof. Cut to 11 dimensions measured by Andy himself, refined through three rounds of back-and-forth, and approved before a single stitch was made.

Two errors caught before production: dimensions transposed on the diagram. A handrail overlooked in the first measurement pass. Both fixed in conversation. Neither became a re-cut.

That's the whole process. No standard sizes. No guessing. No arriving at the marina to find the cover won't fit over the windscreen.

If your boat's console is sitting uncovered, the process starts with two photos and a few measurements. We'll design the cover, send you the scaled diagrams, and nothing gets cut until you've approved every dimension. Start with a custom boat cover — and if it doesn't fit when it arrives — we remake it free.