A sailor girl cut cover (9)
I believe the answer is:
tarpaulin
'a sailor' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'girl cut cover' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'girl' could be 'pauli' and 'pauli' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'tarn' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tarpaulin that I've seen before include "It provides protection" , "Heavy waterproof canvas" , "Waterproof cloth" , "oilskin hat" , "Strong waterproof sheet" .)