Burnham prides itself on manufacturing top-quality, custom made products including boat covers, rigger bags, erg covers, oar covers, slings, and many other products that meet the demands of the rowing and surf ski community. All covers are hand made in the United States and can be ordered with custom colours and your team logo, boat name, or any sort of personalisation to make your equipment cover stand out. Burnham covers any boat class and every major rowing and surf ski boat brand from around the world utilising a variety of fabric options including WeatherMAX® which is designed to handle the harsh weather and sun environments of New Zealand.

WeatherMAX® 80 is a resilient, lightweight feeling fabric that holds up in any condition of climate. WeatherMAX® is ideal for boat covers anywhere protection from the environment is a primary concern, with a quality, long lasting appearance. WeatherMAX® is durable, resisting tears and abrasions, and never exhibits sagging from age, rain, or exposure. The WeatherMAX® exclusive HydroMAX™ finish delivers unsurpassed water repellency and mildew resistance yet preserves the fabric’s natural breathability. Unlike bulky coated fabrics, WeatherMAX® remains soft and supple over time while allowing moisture to escape from under the fabric, thereby eliminating mold and mildew growth. WeatherMAX® is fade resistant. Unlike Nylon, you can count on WeatherMAX® to retain that bright, new-looking colour year after year.

"The New Zealand climate and roads can be quite harsh on our equipment when we travel or store items outside. With WeatherMAX® and Burnham's extensive range of travel and storage solutions, we believe this will be a game changer for protecting Kiwi's investment in their equipment. We've seen other water-sport markets overseas go with Burnham as one of the most trusted boat and equipment cover companies in the world, and we're excited to now bring Burnham customer service to New Zealand." - Aotearoa Boat Company Director, Nick Dawe

Travel, storage, and safety are an integral part of rowing and racing. You want the best for yourself, your crews, and your athletes. You can expect only the best from Burnham!

Aotearoa are now taking enquiries and orders for Burnham. The Burnham New Zealand website will be coming soon. In the meantime head over to burnhamboatslings.com to learn more about the range of travel and storage product offerings.

Our most recent innovation involved a customer request to be able to use a wing rigger bag for travel and to protect their rigger while attached to the boat. This got us to thinking how we could combine the best of two current products - Wing Rigger Bags used for transportation and storage and Padded Wing Covers used for Rigger protection on the boat - into one multi-purpose product. Introducing our newest innovation, Rigger Bag x Wing Cover, or, the Convertible Wing Rigger (ok, we're still working on the name).

Our Convertible Rigger Bag will keep your wing safe from scratching and discoloring during travel and storage and it protect your Wing from nicks and dings while your boat is covered and rigged.

A combination of Velcro and Zippers allows the Convertible Rigger Bag to integrate with your existing Burnham boat cover for a snug, secure, and safe fit.

Reach out for more information on how we can get you set up with a Convertible Rigger Bag. Or retrofit an existing bag. But really, please reach out with a better name!

The RegattaSport team is proud to be able to offer rowers and paddlers alike these incredible custom covers for boats and surf skis!

RegattaSport pride themselves on their customer service, and like Burnham will be right beside you to help with any questions or queries to cover the boat you love with the best and contact us today.

All boat covers are custom made in the Burnham factory in New Hampshire USA. Each cover is designed and patterned exactly to fit your boat, with patterns for all the major boat models from around the world.

In addition to offering a custom fit cover for your boat model you can also select from a large scale of colors, fabrics and finishes. Your even able to add your club or personal initials!

Burnham prides itself on manufacturing top-quality, custom made products including boat covers, blade and paddle covers and boat slings that meet the demands of the rowing and surf ski community. 

My name is Katie Mole, I am a sculler, currently aspiring to international representation and I am honoured to be a brand ambassador for Five57 Sportsgear.

Since starting to work with the Five57 team, I have felt welcomed and supported by a company that truly understands the sport and everything involved in training and competing at a high level on and off the water. It has been insightful to speak with Claire and Tom about their own experiences which guides so much of their work. Their passion for providing exceptional and personal customer service really shines through in their attentiveness to the athletes and teams that they work with.

I have been lucky enough to get my own Burnham boat bag which is designed perfectly to fit my single (Margaret).

The ability to use the boat bag without derigging provides an extra layer of protection when she is on the rack and the quality of the material makes frequent and long trailering journeys less stressful knowing that I’ve got the best protection going. One of the best features that I’ve found is the full zip which allows the cover to be put on and taken off quickly. This has been a godsend in head race season as I can get off the bank and into the warm with minimal faff (much to the joy of my coach as well).

I am very excited to continue working with Five57 over the coming season and see how their products face the challenge of continued use. Keep an eye out for the logo or myself at races such as BUCS, GB Trials and Henley, I’m always happy to have a chat or answer any questions!­­

Thank you Katie for writing this great blog, the first of many we hope, as you progress through the season. Katie will be competing at GB trials this weekend. Everyone at Five57 wishes her luck, if you see her and Margaret at Boston say hello!!

Katie's boat bag is a Sunbrella full zip cover in Marine Blue and Orange.

As part of our mission to provide the best service we can, we are excited to announce our new partnership with Perfect Balance Rowing in Australia. Integrating these two businesses is an obvious way to bring better service to our current Australian-Burnham customers and to continue to  grow our brand globally in Australia as well as throughout Oceania.

Burnham prides itself on manufacturing top-quality, custom made products including boat covers, slings, and cartop rack systems that meet the demands of the Rowing and the Surfski communities. Travel, storage, and safety are an integral part of rowing, paddling, and racing. You want the best for yourself, your crews, and your athletes. You can expect only the best from Burnham! 

Perfect Balance Rowing is known for bringing great products to the Australian market. Headed up by Alastair Isherwood and based in Victoria, Perfect Balance Rowing specializes in providing high quality Flatwater and Coastal rowing shells made by some of the world's top manufacturers as well as supplying essential gear from electronics and tools to oars and sports gear to enhance your enjoyment of the sport. 

Why Australia? First and foremost, Australia is a great rowing market. Australian rowing has had a significant presence in the world rowing for as long as we can remember. On a more personal note, I have a strong connection to Australia. My father William Kermond was born and grew up in Castlemaine, a small town just east of Victoria. After attending (and rowing at) St. Patrick's College in Victoria, he pursued a degree in medicine before moving to the US where he started his family and the rest, as they say, is history. Putting the two together began to make more and more sense.

One year when I was racing at the World Championships in the US LM8+, my father noticed a familiar name in the AUS LM8+. As it turns out, I was racing the son of one of my father's medical school classmates, Peter Antonie (who went on to become one of the most decorated rowers anywhere, not just Australia). This spark generated a friendship that remains to this day. In fact, it was through this friendship that I was introduced to Alastair Isherwood, another lightweight world medalist (see photo below - 1997 World Champions in the LM8+, 3-seat, photo c/o Rowing Australia). From our first conversation, Alastair and I discovered a shared sense of being on the same page - a genuine interest in rowing, the value of high quality products, and a passion for rowing which has led to their longevity in the sport. 

At Burnham, we are confident that Alastair and Perfect Balance Rowing will continue to develop positive relationships with our current customers and with the watersports enthusiasts who have yet to join the Burnham-Perfect Balance family. Perfect Balance Rowing will be there for you whatever your situation – recreational or racing shell, novice or veteran, exterior or interior storage, short-distance car topping, or a full-blown racing season with regatta storage. Perfect Balance Rowing will help you select the ideal Burnham package from the best array of products available to protect your valuable equipment. Whether your boat is brand new or 10 years old, it is worth taking care of.

Burnham will continue to design and manufacture our full line of products in New Hampshire about two hours northeast of Boston on the east coast of the US. Each cover is designed exactly to fit your boat, with patterns for all the major manufacturers and models from around the world. Along with offering a custom fit cover for your boat, you can also choose from a wide range of colors, fabrics and finishes. You can even add your club logo or initials!

Perfect Balance Rowing will offer a full range of accessories for your boat including slings (trestles), rigger bags, oar bags and blade covers as well as our trademark boat covers. If you are in Australia, look to Perfect Balance Rowing for the accessories we think you will love the most.

We invite you to visit the Burnham-AUS website through the Perfect Balance Rowing webpage at perfectbalancerowing.com or directly at burnhamboatslings.com.au. Follow Burnham and Perfect Balance Rowing on social media to get some great introductory offers and spread the word that Burnham is in Australia!

Peter

Cover the boat you love with the best!

@burnhamboatsling @burnhamboatslings

@perfectbalancerowing @perfectbalancerowing

Earlier this summer, we modified the bow-flags sewn into our boat covers. The biggest change was moving to a more durable fabric - 1.5oz Nylon Rip-stop Sailcloth, to be specific. This is the fabric of spinnakers and kites. It is hard wearing and tough! Next, we modified the attachment point. Instead of sewing the flag into the end seam, it is attached to a short piece of webbing allowing it to better withstand the whipping around that occurs while cartopping.

Last but not least, as of this morning, all flags will now have a stitched-on tab of reflective webbing for better visibility in low light conditions. As you can see in her email below, Diana really liked the new reflective webbing fabric we have sewn onto covers near the boat ends. This 2-inch-wide High Visibility Fabric Stripe Webbing Ribbon replaces the reflective piping sewn in previously where the Tip and Tail portions join the Body of the cover. When we read about Diana's thought to add reflective fabric to the flag, it became obvious to us to do that in-house for everyone on all our covers going forward.

Subject: I LOVE the cover

I like the improvements. The reflective material is a wonderful improvement! I had sewn some reflectors onto my Peinert cover, because we always end up driving to Regattas in the dark. Now I won’t have to add them to this cover. I still might put a strip of reflective fabric on the tail for visibility directly behind me. I had already bought some reflective ribbon to go on there. Also, I like the way you now attach the tail, with it being sewn into that webbing. The webbing is right where my Peinert cover showed wear after the very first trip. This cover is well beefed up, and you left room for a tennis ball to go over that sharp stern. Bravo!

Diana Hanks

We are so glad you like the improvements to our covers, Diana, and thanks as well for this awesome flag idea! It's great to hear from our customers. We love photos of you and your Burnham products. If you have something to share with us, you can be sure we will give it our full attention. Maybe you will be featured you in our next blog. 

A note about the tennis ball mentioned above. You may not be able to tell at first glance, but Diana has a tennis ball protecting the stern end of her boat inside the cover. Kings and a few other shells out there have very fine (i.e. pointy) sterns. Not only can you hurt yourself walking into a pointy boat, they also tend to easily wear through the end of a boat cover. A quick solution for both situations involves our humble boathouse friend the tennis ball. Cut a slit into a tennis ball, open it "Pac-Man" style, and slip it onto the stern. Take it off for rowing but using it when you are storing your boat on a rack or in its cover will protect the cover and keep you from getting an unwanted jab at the same time.

Peter

Cover the boat you love with the best!

We have been looking for a way to enhance service to our customers overseas. Five57 Sportsgear in Nottingham, United Kingdom, is a specialist supplier of quality sports clothing and equipment, primarily for the rowing and watersports communities. A fit like one of our custom made covers!

What appealed to us right away is Five57 are a family run business with a reputation for customer service and honesty at their core. They have strong relationships with the people behind the products they supply. They already represent our friends at RegattaSport which speaks volumes about their commitment to providing a personal touch to their current customers that stands out in a competitive market.

Like Peter, Five57 boss, Tom Kay, is another ex-lightweight rower. That background gives him and his team at Five57 the same kind of outlook and drive to which we all aspire, that Tom sums up along the lines of, “If you are going to do something, do it as well as you can.”

At Burnham, we are confident that Five57 will continue to develop positive relationships with our current customers and with the watersports enthusiasts who have yet to join the Burnham-Five57 family. Five57 will listen carefully to your needs. Whatever your situation – recreational or racing shell, novice or veteran, exterior or interior storage, short-distance car topping, or a full-blown racing season with regatta storage – Five57 will help you select the ideal Burnham package from the best array of products available to protect your valuable equipment.

Burnham will continue to design and manufacture our full line of products in New Hampshire only about two hours northeast of Boston. Each cover is designed exactly to fit your boat, with patterns for all the major manufacturers and models from around the world. Along with offering a custom fit cover for your boat, you can also choose from a wide range of colors, fabrics and finishes. You can even add your club logo or initials!

In the past few months, with the interruption of team boat rowing, many people have looked to their single sculls to keep rowing while social distancing. Here at Burnham, we have seen a big upturn in sales as rowers want to protect their boats from the elements and from dings in the boathouse! Whether your boat is brand new or 10 years old, it is worth taking care of.

Five57 will offer a full range of accessories for your boat including slings (trestles), rigger bags, oar bags and blade covers as well as our trademark boat covers. If you are in the UK or Europe, look to Five57 for the accessories we think you will love the most:

Regatta Slings - these are small, space saving trestles that are perfect for going afloat when you are not at the club. They fit easily into your car boot, are great value and even have an integrated tie-down strap. Much easier than searching for spare club trestles to rig your boat or having to rest it on the ground! And safer than leaving it on the trailer between races with all those other riggers just waiting to ding your shell!

Sunbrella Sculling Oar Bag - keep your expensive sculls safe from scratches and dirt in the bottom of that club trailer. The full length zip is the clincher here for easy packing and unpacking.

Sweep Oar Travel Bag - oars are a big club expense and often get a rough ride. Keep your paintwork fresher and protect grips, blades, and length adjustment from damage. Up to 4 sweep oars in each bag make for easy unloading and transport to the boat racks.

Wing Rigger Bags - one bag fits both wing riggers so no more fighting with tangled riggers in the bottom of the trailer!

Blade covers - all that effort goes into painting blades with club colors for them to get scratched and damaged on the way to races. Once your blades have had a nice new paint job, cover them in a cover and they will stay fresher for longer!

So many great ideas for you to browse so visit the UK Burnham website through the Five57 webpage at www.five57sportsgear.com/burnham-boat-bags or direct at burnhamboatslings.co.uk. Don’t forget to follow Burnham and Five57 on our social media to get some great introductory offers and spread the word that Burnham is here in the UK!

Peter

Cover the boat you love with the best!

Cover repair - great job! 

"Squirrels had done a number on my boat cover during the winter, and it was in rough shape, with the fabric chewed through and the quilted lining destroyed in places. Burnham did an amazing job refurbishing it - it really looks almost new. It is so wonderful to be able to get something FIXED instead of throwing it away - a rare experience these days. Great service and communication throughout the process - thank you to the folks at Burnham!"

- Kathleen Bailey   

Here at Burnham, sustainability is more than a buzzword. "One of the most responsible things we can do as a company is to make the highest quality products that last for years and can be repaired, so you don't have to buy more of it."

"As individuals, the best thing we can do for the planet is keep our things in use longer and reduce our overall consumption in the process. So please, repair your old cover, pass it on to the new owner if you sell you boat, or donate it to startup program. Every little bit helps." - Burnham owner, Peter Kermond

So, when we encourage you to get us your "in need of repair" covers and bags, we mean it. Whether the squirrels used the fluff from the lining to pad their nests for the winter, the zipper just gave way, or your bow flag has seen better days, we'll fix it and ship it back to you. Check out our Repairs & Services options here.

Today, we heard from Paul Harvey. He's been a customer for 30 years now and counting. He sent us this photo of his beloved Bay 21 in its newest Burnham cover. (Paul designed the Bay 21 with Bill Tytus and began Bay Shells, Inc.)

"Thank you for your great work on my new boat cover. This is #3 Burnham cover for my Bay 21. Couldn’t be better!"

"If you can believe it, l measured my first Bay 21 and sent the dimensions to Kay so she could make the first one. Bill Tytus (at Pocock Racing Shells), and l, developed the Bay 21. That was 30 years ago!"

The Kay who Paul is referring to was the wife of Burnham Boat Slings founder, Harry Burnham. Harry and Kay Burnham made boat covers and slings for about a dozen years in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont until they sold their business to Peter Kermond. Still a New England tradition, the Burnham shop is now located at 57 Hanover ST, Lebanon, New Hampshire. Stop by and say hello, or send us a photo of you and your boat. We would be delighted to feature you here as well.

-- Cover the boat you love with the best

On November 1st thru 3rd.  More than 11,000 athletes and tens of thousands of spectators will gather in The Head of the Hooch is one of the world’s largest rowing regattas, with 2,000+ boats racing over two days. More than 9,000 seats are rowed. 1,200 boats compete on Saturday alone, more in one day than any other regatta. Participants come from over 200 different organizations and in 2012 the regatta welcomed crews from 27 different states. The Head of the Hooch has seen a growth in entries from other countries. The regatta has hosted teams from Canada, Germany, Sweden and Australia. 

It's a wonderful opportunity to gather with friends and enjoy a lively weekend on the river. Whether you're spectating, rowing, or volunteering, we hope to see you there. 

Best of luck to everyone competing this weekend! 

P.S. Don't forget, if you have covers that need repairs and want to save the shipping hassle, you can always bring them to us at the regatta! We'll bring them back to the shop, get them all fixed up, and ship them out to you when they're ready to go.