Re-doing overhead

[zachduckworth]

Hi,

I have a 1984 Islander Bahama 30. This boat was designed to be lighter than then Islander Mk II, which they achieved in a few different ways. One thing they did was use headliners instead of finishing the overhead. All of the headliners were perfect except the one in the head, where some water had damaged it where it leaked in through the flush hatch.The water also damaged and caused rot to the wood that made up the frame of the flush hatch.

I ended up speaking with a guy (Mark from Marks Plastics) who worked on Islanders back when they were still in production. he suggested I tear out the headliner, chisel out the old wood, and replace it.



I decided to go one better and I added a hard wood brace around the bottom cutout of the flush hatch and epoxied it into place. I am now debating how to wrap up. The geometry behind the headliner is pretty gnarly. In the picture you are looking at the forward starboard bulkhead in the head. The white panel is tabed in at the hull, but not in the middle. I epoxied that piece to the deck, as you can see. There are a number of voids in the bulkhead, including there teh tab has a hole through it for the wires to lead to a light over the sink.

"Unfinished" here means really, really unfinished. I'm sort of at a loss for what to do, except maybe hire someone to come in and do a new headliner. My other idea is to epoxy mahogany strips onto the teak trim and then screw oak battens to those, painted white running fore and after. That would look pretty slick, I think, and cover up the unsightly unfinished overhead. The other idea I am considering is to try to put up some of that RV upholstery material that you stick on with 3M, and just follow the contours of the ceiling as best I can. That's appealing because (1) I have some (2) it it a quick fix that is just as quickly reversible.

Yet another idea, which is frankly very tempting, is to epoxy a bunch of blocks in there, then fill the gaps with epoxy + colloidal silica, then fair it and then paint it. I may even take the trip off, complete the tab, and fiberglass in the board that is already tabbed in, and then paint that as well. It would update the look maybe. That board, for the record, has a chain plate in it, so it is pretty solid.. although it is only tabbed in near the hull.

[Bill O]

If you have enough cabin top stringers and height, could do a drop ceiling.

The PO on our boat used FRP panels glued to 1/4" ply. The panels are sectioned and can be dropped to allow access for wiring, deck hardware etc. Wood trim is used to hide the edges of the sections.

Another added benefit of the drop ceiling was to have enough space to add insulation. This helps in the tropics to reduce the heat penetration thru the deck and in colder clims keeps the heat in the boat.
All around, the FRP looks nice and is easy to clean.

[JBP]

Some other options
Use instead of oak strips painted white, some people opt for synthetic bead board strips.
https://www.pinterest.es/pin/246220304614365662/

Use thin plywood with a nice veneer.