Grady-White Boat Upholstery, For Boats That Carry More Than Fishermen
A Grady-White does two jobs. It fishes on Saturday and it carries the family on Sunday, and the seating has to survive both. That is a harder brief than a dedicated fishing boat, where nobody cares whether the cushion is comfortable for three hours at anchor.
It also means the upholstery gets judged differently. Nobody complains about a worn bolster on a tournament boat. On a Grady it is the thing your wife points at every time you take the boat out, and it is usually why the call finally gets made.
We build these packages to handle both uses: foam specified for sitting on rather than just leaning against, Sunbrella Horizon faces that survive sun and sunscreen and kids, and PTFE thread so the seams outlast the fabric.
We are not affiliated with Grady-White Boats. We build upholstery that fits their boats.
Why a Grady package has more pieces
Grady-White puts convertible seating almost everywhere: forward-facing lounges, backrests that fold, aft benches that disappear into the transom, filler cushions that turn the bow into a sun pad. Owners love it and it is a large part of why the boats hold value.
It also means a full package on a Grady carries noticeably more individual pieces than a comparable fishing hull, and piece count is what drives shop time. A 28 ft Grady can easily have more separate cushions than a 34 ft center console.
The practical consequence is that doing a Grady piecemeal is more expensive than doing almost any other boat piecemeal, because you repeat the measuring and the color decision across more visits. If there was ever a boat to do at once, this is it.
What actually destroys these cushions
On a dedicated fishing boat, exterior seating fails from UV and abrasion. On a family boat it fails from sunscreen.
Modern chemical sunscreens attack marine vinyl, and the damage shows up as staining and then as the surface going tacky and eventually breaking down. It concentrates exactly where people sit and lean, which is why a Grady's bow lounge often looks a decade older than the aft bench on the same boat.
This is a large part of why we standardised on Sunbrella Horizon for upholstery faces. It is the most chemical and UV tolerant marine upholstery material available, and on a family boat that is not a luxury, it is the difference between five good seasons and two. Seams go in PTFE thread for the same reason. We also tell people the unglamorous thing that actually works: rinse the seating when you rinse the boat.
Grady-Whites we build for
- Fisherman 216, 236 and 257. Bolsters, leaning post or helm seat, bow cushions. Usually a single-visit package.
- Freedom 215, 235, 255, 275, 325 and 415. The convertible seating models. Highest piece count for the length.
- Canyon 271, 326, 336 and 456. Full exterior packages, larger helm assemblies, aft seating.
- Express 340 and 370. Exterior plus cabin: settee, dinette, V-berth mattress and filler.
Grady changes model numbers between generations, so a lot of our work is on the hulls these replaced. An older 306 or 330 is the same job.
Full scope and cost detail is on our full boat upholstery page.
Grady-White Boat Upholstery FAQ
How much does it cost to reupholster a Grady-White Canyon 306?
A full exterior package on a 306, covering bolsters, helm seating, forward lounge and backrests, bow filler cushions and aft bench, generally runs $9,000 to $15,000. Piece count rather than boat length is what drives it on a Grady, since these boats carry more separate cushions than comparable hulls. We pattern the boat and give you a fixed price with each piece itemized, so you can see what any individual section costs if you want to stage the work.
Why is my bow seating worn out when the aft bench looks fine?
Sunscreen, almost always. Chemical sunscreens degrade marine vinyl, and on a family boat the bow lounge is where people sit for hours with it on. The damage starts as staining, then the surface goes tacky, then it breaks down. Salt and sun do their share but on a Grady the forward seating usually ages at twice the rate of everything else for this reason. We rebuild in Sunbrella Horizon, which tolerates that chemical load far better than the factory material did, and we sew with PTFE thread so the seams are not the next thing to go.
Do you do the cabin cushions on an Express model too?
Yes. Settee and dinette cushions, V-berth mattress and filler, and hull-side or headliner panels where they need attention. Interior work uses a different foam specification than exterior seating, since comfort matters more than drainage below deck. Doing interior and exterior together on an Express is usually the sensible approach because the color decision carries across both.
Should I do the whole boat at once or a piece at a time?
On a Grady specifically, at once. These boats carry more individual cushions than almost anything of comparable length, and each additional visit repeats the measuring, the mobilization and the color match. Staging a Grady is more expensive per piece than staging any other boat we work on, and matching new work to cushions installed two seasons earlier rarely lands clean.
Fishing boat Saturday, family boat Sunday
Send photos of the cockpit, bow and any cabin cushions with the model and year, and we will come measure. Fixed price, every piece itemized.
Or call (561) 278-6521