Marine upholstery fabric, IMO certified

Marine upholstery is not outdoor upholstery with salt added. The difference is a fire test, and it is not optional.

Vessel interiors are governed by the IMO Fire Test Procedures Code. Upholstered furniture sits under Part 8, which tests the cloth on the foam it will actually be used with, because an assembly burns differently to either component on its own. Curtains and vertically hung textiles sit under Part 7. Passing one does not give you the other, which is why marine curtain and marine wallcovering are specified separately from the seating.

One substitution comes up often enough to state plainly. BS 5852 Crib 5 is a widely specified furniture fire test and it is not a substitute for Part 8. A cloth can hold Crib 5 and still not be certified for a vessel.

The rest is exposure. Salt, ultraviolet and standing moisture, on surfaces cleaned hard and cleaned often. Solution dyed yarns take their colour before the fibre is formed and hold it where a piece dyed cloth will not. Coated fabrics and marine vinyls shed water at the surface and take a disinfectant without the finish going.

The constraint that catches people out is shape. Vessel seating is more often moulded than flat, so the cloth has to take a compound curve without pulling at the corners or relaxing into it later. A woven fabric with a knit or stretch construction will do that. A stable weave will not, whatever else it holds.

So the specification runs in that order. Part 8 first, because without it nothing else counts. Then the exposure. Then whether the cloth will go round the shape you actually have.