The leather trim on my new (and pricey) dodger looked very rich and pleasing for the first 4 years or so. Then over time it slowly started to shrink and became brittle leading to fading and cracks. I suppose the constant exposure to the elements took its toll on the leather. The Sunbrella Seamark still looks great. I did use Lexol leather cleaner and cream conditioner throughout the sailing season and tarped over the boat in the off season. Our previous boat experienced similar results. I should have learned but I attributed it to neglect and unknown age of the installation.
@Spindrift NH i I'm wondering if you have experience using the Stamskin and/or the Sileather on exterior applications on boats rather than upholstery. Both of these fabrics give a light stability of greater than 1500. I'm not familiar with the specific test they are using for that number so I don't have an idea of what it means. But looking at 1500 hours - if you use 12 hours of sun in a day, 1500 divided by 12 gives you 125 - that's 125 days. A pretty short time frame for an application living in the sun. But I could be completely misinterpreting what this number means.
