Built from the inside of too many hot cabins

Before Skipper Screens, I spent five years in the HVAC industry. Ductwork, ventilation, heat management — I learned how heat moves, where it builds, and what it does to the things inside a space. Then I spent another five years running a boat maintenance company, which meant I was in and out of cockpits, cabins and wheelhouses almost every day.

What I kept seeing bothered me. Towels draped over windscreens. Beach towels wedged into corners. Makeshift cardboard cut to shape. Boat owners doing whatever they could to keep the sun off their dashboards — and still walking back to a cabin that had been cooking for hours, with screens faded, leather cracked, and electronics baking under direct UV.

I'd price up electronics replacements, reupholster sun-damaged seating, and replace cracked instrument panels — thousands of dollars of damage that was entirely preventable. But when I went looking for a proper solution, I found nothing. No UV-proof, insulated sun shield designed specifically for boat windscreens. The problem was obvious. The product just didn't exist.

So I built it.

Skipper Screens are engineered from a 7-layer marine textile that blocks UV, reflects radiant heat, and brings cabin temperatures down significantly — without drilling holes in your boat, without complicated fitting, and without looking like an afterthought. They clip on in under a minute and come off just as fast.

Everything is designed and made here in Australia. My goal has always been simple: produce something genuinely useful, build it properly, and make it easy enough that any boat owner can use it without help. No tools. No instructions. Just shade, the way it should have always been available.