Weak Fabric Blamed for Rip in Center Roof : Downtown: Sail-like covering on Convention Center, still under warranty, will be repaired by the company that installed it.

Weaknesses in the fabric of the giant, Teflon-coated panel that stretched over the San Diego Convention Center last spring allowed high winds to rip it off, leaving it flapping like a sail, San Diego Unified Port District officials said Tuesday.

The tent, which is longer than a football field, tore where the fabric was attached to the center’s drain assembly, and now, after five months and $40,980 worth of investigations, port authorities say they are confident that a solution has been found.

“The tent was redesigned and reinforced to make sure that it doesn’t give way again,” said Dan Wilkens, spokesman for the Port District, which built the Convention Center.

“It’s basically making sure that the connecting materials and some of the other panels where you have eyeholes and things like that are reinforced,” he said.

The torn tent left one of the Convention Center’s special events areas exposed to rain.

“Aesthetically, it (the current condition of the sail-like roof) looks very attractive, but functionally it could be a problem if it rains,” said Joe Davis, acting general manager of the Convention Center.

The center did not lose substantial amounts of money because of the torn roof, but use of the space has been scaled down and some tenants were given reduced rates because of inconveniences incurred from the damages, Davis said.

“It has had a very modest impact on our business. We haven’t lost any business to date, but we’ve made a couple adjustments on some rental rates,” Davis said.

The Board of Port Commissioners on Tuesday approved a $342,335 contract to repair the canopy structure, which is under a 10-year warranty.

The repairs, which the Port District hopes will be finished by the end of the year or early next year, will be made by Birdair, the company that installed the structure.

The port director’s staff concluded that Birdair was the best choice because it is probably the only contractor that can do the job, and it did not want to risk voiding the warranty by having a third party perform the repairs.

Under the contract, the Port District will be reimbursed by its insurance carriers, who will in turn try to collect from Birdair and other contractors involved, Wilkens said.

Birdair officials declined to comment on why the canopy failed or what steps are being taken to remedy the situation.

The canopy, which is 25 feet wide and 330 feet long, was designed to withstand winds of up to 100 m.p.h., but was detached when an April rainstorm with winds of 27 to 35 m.p.h. ripped a hole in it.

The combined cost for the entire sail-like panel and the Convention Center’s roof, which was installed in 1989, was $1.6 million.

Birdair, based in Buffalo, N.Y., has manufactured similar panels for other public facilities, but the company said this is the first time one of its panels has failed in 19 years.