Boat Canvas University

John Cavender is a 25-year veteran of the Marine Canvas Fabrication industry, is sought-after for his expertise and has been training fabricators across the country for many years. In 1990, after four years of military service, John began building mobile workshops using large panel vans with built-in tools and sewing tables. This enabled him to meet the high demand for custom canvas in a wide vari

ety of applications and locations. These mobile workshops grossed millions of dollars annually and are still in operation today. In 1998, John was contracted to manufacture eradicable awnings. This led him to focus in metal fabrication for Marriott, making awnings for public schools in Florida as well as major grocery chains. He quickly earned a reputation for his metal fabrication work. This led to manufacturing custom wake board towers for Moomba Ski Boats. It was during this period that he began working with semi-hard enclosures and was ultimately contracted by Peter Pan Industries to build complete enclosures for amphibious attraction vehicles. In 2003, John’s “OEM” (original equipment manufacturing) branch of the business took off. He was responsible for the patterning and duplication of patterns to meet the high demand of his clientele, which included Angler Bass Boats, Blazer Bass and Bay Boats, Baha Cruisers and Boston Whaler among many others. He also developed enclosures for golf cart manufacturers like Yamaha, Club Car, EZ Go and Par Car and various custom golf cart manufacturers. John also manufactured the first generation of Segway Vehicle storage bags. By 2012 John began filming “tricks of the trade” videos and invented a specialty tool to make a very complex patterning and scribing process possible with a simple, easy-to-use system. He is 100% committed to sharing his vast knowledge and years of experience in a wide variety of applications. His mission with Boat Canvas University is to provide others who share his passion with the step-by-step instruction to allow them, too, to become successful fabricators.