A hot pink boat cover made by Suzi Clinefelter of Mystery Bay Sails and Canvas won the 2015 Outstanding Achievement Award for design excellence in specialty fabrics applications at the Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) Expo in October.

The Marrowstone Island sailmaking business received the award in the International Achievement Awards (IAA) competition’s travel/full cover category for a full boat cover project.

Clinefelter made the cover for a 1956 two-seater runabout built by George Calkins and restored by Michael Webster of Marrowstone Island. The full boat cover is topped with bright pink Sunbrella fabric.

Webster is a repeat customer, Clinefelter said.

"His criteria was that he didn't want anything that would be touching any paint or varnish that could possibly mar the paint and varnish," she said. She made the pattern and determined which parts would be touching the boat; those parts she lined in "a fabric called Evolution that is used in high-end car covers," she said. "I'm giving away all my trade secrets here!"

The parts of the boat cover that do not touch the boat she left unlined, and she also added some vents in the top, aiming to prevent condensation from forming under the cover.

"Sunbrella is supposed to breathe," she said.

When Webster began restoring the boat, he talked to George and Wilma Calkins about color choices.

"Wilma was in charge of painting them," Clinefelter said, and most of the boats were painted "the basic blue, black, white, but one guy wanted a pink boat."

When Webster was restoring it, "he was taking down layers of paint, and he found he had the original pink boat," Clinefelter said. So Webster chose to paint the restored boat pink, too.

"It's this gorgeous, rose-colored pink, and he named the boat 'Lipstick,'" Clinefelter said. She made pink-and-white vinyl cushions for the boat, and then Webster said, "We've got to make a pink boat cover.”

"He doesn't ask if you can do something. He says, 'You're going to do this for me,'" she said. She was worried about finding pink Sunbrella fabric – a brand commonly used in boat covers because of its durability, UV resistance and breathability.

"About that time, I went to a local workshop and I got the new Sunbrella color chart, and they'd come out with hot pink. So that was it." She chose silver accents along the top and bottom of the hull. "Michael just said, 'You go for it, Suzi.'"

The top of the boat cover is pink, and the bottom is black. "The only part of the boat not covered is the part that goes on the trailer bunks," she said. "He wanted everything on the whole boat to be covered. So I made a pattern that covers the whole boat," including the 1956 Mercury engine that Webster also restored. The engine cover even covers the propeller and attaches to the main boat cover with Velcro and zippers. One of the biggest compliments it received, she said, was when someone who saw the boat on the trailer asked, "Why doesn't he put a cover on it?" because they didn't even recognize the boat had a cover on it.

How long did it take her to make it?

"Oh, forever," she joked. "I did it over the course of the summer. A lot of stepping back and scratching my head ... and in the summer, [there are] people coming in with their little crisis projects." She said if she'd worked on it full-time, "eight-hour days, it would have taken three weeks, from the whole part of making the pattern to the final product going on the boat."

How much did she charge?

"Not enough!" she joked. "[Webster] is totally thrilled. He's starting another boat, and we're talking about cushions and covers for that."

Clinefelter's work was selected from among 293 entries in the IAA competition, one of the events at the Industrial Fabrics Association International Expo, which took place in Anaheim, California, in mid-October. IFAI is a nonprofit trade association whose 1,600-plus member companies represent the growing international specialty fabrics and technical textiles marketplace. Winners were selected based on complexity, design, workmanship, uniqueness and function, and judges included industry experts, editors, architects, educators and design professionals who were chosen for their knowledge in a particular field of study or product area.