Top-Snapper

My new boat has a nice set of “camper canvas” for the cockpit area, manufactured by King Marine Canvas in Seattle. Although it’s been used, it’s still in great shape. But jeepers, it’s difficult to snap into place. In fact, there is one snap I simply cannot make fast without partially dismantling the frame, just to take tension off the canvas. This is pretty much how it’s supposed to be, though, because taught canvas behaves better underway as well as in wind and rain.
  
Luckily, the previous owner elected to include a tool he’d found indispensible with this canvas. I’ve got to admit, it’s darned handy. It’s the Top Snapper, manufactured by Ironwood Pacific out of Lake Oswego, Oregon. If you’ve got drumhead-tight boat canvas, and your bruised thumbs are giving you grief, you might want to take a look at this. Mine is the older model with the wooden handle, so it lacks the additional fitting you see on the red butt-end of the tool in these pictures, which is intended for use on outside snaps. That could be handy, and I may need to get an updated version of the tool one of these days. (Did I really just write “red butt”?)