Replace frontrunner in cabin with?

[Vorpal Blade 87]

17 hours ago, Bad Kitty said:

Yeah was thinking of a vinyl sort of thing maybe, a bit thicker or on a thin backing maybe to help cover the lack of fairing?

Still waiting for a clever boat interior finisher to pop up & solve me dilemma for me!

What you are describing is more or less an automotive headlining material. Typically a textured vinyl fabric bonded to a layer of foam 2-3mm thick. I have a bloody big carton of swatches in the workshop, if I find some spare time I will have a dig through and see what I can find. 

[Battgirl 22]

Pardon my poor education but what on earth is front runner? Any relation to road runner? Ducking for cover now. 

[Bad Kitty 117]

Its' some sort of synthetic cabin liner, think it's made for marine use, furry soft stuff which starts off great but doesn't age that well. Like a lot of us I guess?

Goes a bit mangy after time,

[Steve Pope 105]

I've got some 40 year old FR, definitely mangy, still in the 2 hard basket.

[strath 2]

I have Farr 1020

A couple of years ago I to remove the front runner from the boat, finished up with plywood liner and a glue mess,.

I then preceded to make panels that spanned across the full cabin ceiling and have them covered in vynal. This finished up a really nice job.

The process 

1/ I set out the panels to suit the width of the vynal and the position of any posts, or hatches, I started from the galley posts working forward, also to suit sheet of plywood, in this case they finish up approximately 550mm wide,

2/ Having clean up the ceiling as best I could,

3/ Using heavy brown paper, the type floor layer use, I made 550mm wide patterns, taping it to the ceiling making sure you start parallel to the bulkheads and scribing the ends,

4/ I purchased 6mm plywood, which has a thick core that runs across the sheet, this makes it easier to bend to the curve of the cabin top.

5/ I then laid the pattern on the paper and cut the first sheet.

6/  I then fitted the panel into the boat holding them up by propping it up off the floor, you need a few props, as you must push the sheets up all the way across 

7/  Then progressively making a pattern cutting the plywood and fitting each panel inside the boat, scribing the ends and side to match the previous sheet, the cabin top the curve changes and getting tighter as you go forward.

8/ You need to allow 4-5mm clearance on the sheets ends and a 3mm space between sheets.

 9/ Once you have fitted all the sheets, sanded the edges and give them and small round.

10/ This is where I cheated as I took the panels to the local upholsterer in Gulf Harbour where he covered the panels with 3mm foam sheets and then rapped them in vynal 

 The finished lookes great a slightly padded vynal panel.

It was at the upholsterer recommendation I used 6mm plywood as he wanted wrapped the vynal around the edges to and use 100s of staples to fix on the back. Apparently you can not get shorter staples the 6mm. 

The sheets are secured in place using industrial valcro stapled along all the edges of the panels and to the underside of the old plywood ceiling to match.

It is a fiddly job but well worth the effort, having been a carpentry joiner a past lifeCeiling panels.msg helped.

One of the benefits with the above system is that your can remove the panels to get to any bolts fixing turning blocks and deck gear.  

 

[strath 2]

Photos of panels

[Bad Kitty 117]

Nice, thanks Strath. You watching Richard Edlin?  

[Tamure 361]

That liner looks mint, that said its all about weight, on a cruiser you can put panels up there but on a racer I think a coat of flat or semigloss over a filled and faired surface is probably the best way to go. Frontrunner is easy, so is the spray on yoghurt texture.