How to Make a Jon Boat Cover

A jon boat is a small, shallow-draft boat known for its high maneuverability and single-person operation. They are extremely good in close quarters, easily going where larger boats cannot. Since most jon boats are either commercially built aluminum or handmade from wood and plywood, adding a cover to the jon boat is usually a welcomed afterthought. As a DIY project, wrapping a jon boat in marine-grade canvas with an elastic band of bungee or shock cord works best.

Things You'll Need

  • Jon boat
  • Tape measure
  • Straightedge
  • Heavy duty electric scissors
  • 54-inch marine-grade vinyl canvas
  • Sewing machine
  • Number 18 sewing machine needle
  • Tex-300 canvas sewing thread
  • 1/2-inch bungee or shock cord
  • 2-inch by 40-foot polyester tie-down
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Instructions

    • 1

      Measure the dimensions of the target jon boat at the gunnels. Multiply the length times 1.15 and the width times 1.5 to obtain the cover-size length and width. This produces a cover that will extend 18 inches below all upper outside surfaces of the craft.

    • 2

      Use a tape measure, straightedge and permanent marker to lay out the dimensions of the boat cover on a sheet of vinyl-coated marine-grade canvas. Use heavy duty electric scissors to cut the piece. Most jon boats will have a beam (gunnel-width dimension) that exceeds the width of commercial rolls of vinyl canvas. This will require two strips sewn together.

    • 3

      Lay out the cut pieces of fabric. Fold over the long edges of the cut pieces of canvas one inch. Run the folded material through a sewing machine with a Number 18 needle and Tex-300 thread, stitching the pieces together lengthwise. Double-run the seam, stitching a second seam beside the first one.

    • 4

      Fold a 2-inch seam in the exterior edges of the combined fabric piece and run these edges through the sewing machine twice per side. This produces a fabric tube for insertion of the shock cord.

    • 5

      Multiply the total circumference of the combined cover fabric (the sum of the length and width times two), by .7. This produces an elastic cord dimension that is 30 percent less than the circumference of the cover.

    • 6

      Use a utility knife to cut open the stitched-over ends of the four fabric tube seams. Tie one end of a 50-foot length of 1/2-inch shock or bungee cord to a slender stick. Insert the stick into one end of one of the fabric tubes and work it all the way around the cover and out the other tube end. Work the extra material of the cover until the overlapped canvas that is bunched up by the shorter-dimension shock cord is evenly distributed around the cover. Tie the ends of the shock cord together.

    • 7

      Start at the bow and stretch the boat cover over the bow and around the gunnels to the stern.