My Venture Cat 15 tramp was badly sun-damaged through neglect by the previous owner. About the third trip out on the lake, the material split along the seam line.

My first attempt at repair was to take it to a local upholstery shop. He resewed the split seam, adding a reinforcement patch. It cost $20.

This worked for one trip out on the lake and then the material split along the fold in which the crossbar fits...this time the split was not near a seam...the material itself was too badly degraded.

Not wanting to spend another $20, I decided to fold over the remaining material on itself and put grommets in rather than trying to resew it. Thus, instead of a fold in which the crossbar slides, I now had a row of grommets that allowed me to lace it with 1/4" line to the crossbar. It has not shown any sign of ripping.

I'm so impressed by the ease of simply grommeting the edges that I'm thinking about making a new tramp with no sewing at all. I should be able to triple fold each edge, hiding the edge inside the hem, and then putting in grommets every three inches.