I don't think it has a place on a boat out cruising. As a general rule, they just don't hold up in the sun, the seams let go and they abrade easy. IMHO, I think the best fabric out there is the Hypalon outer coating with the PVC inner coating such as the old Achilles used. It held air well because of the PVC inside and held up to the sun because of the Hypalon outer layer. The hypalon outer layer wasn't as tough as the Avon so I went with the Avon 25 years ago. So now I have had 4 Avons out of the last 5 boats. Once you sit on a sticky golden colored (which was once red) Zodiac, you'll never buy a PVC boat again...