Boat Project
Living Aboard a Boat
Headlining a Project Part II: The Salon
Friday, April 04, 2014TheCambrians
One of the many projects
we’re working on this off-season (and by ‘we’ I mean David) is our ever-present
sagging headliner. The problem first showed itself seven years ago but, in
reality, it started from day one with a poor design. We love our Westerly
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| The salon starboard headliner before. |
Our headliner is nice and,
presumably, expensive but it’s a foam backed vinyl material that was glued to
the cabin top and, in places, sides of the hull. It wouldn’t take a rocket
scientist to realize that over time, the foam would break down and the glue would
no longer hold the very large, heavy pieces of material. But they installed it
that way regardless and we’ve been left to correct the mistake, which is a lot
more difficult than it sounds.
We started in the forward berth and, every now and then, we’d have to fix a similar problem in other areas of
the boat. But the salon and galley have had us scratching our heads for years.
Because the deck hardware comes through the hull in these places, there are
several bolts to work around and the ‘roof line’ is uneven and tricky to work
with. So David had to come up with a plan. After a lot of back and forth, he created
a design to attack the problem – use Durasnaps to hold the headliner along the
smooth areas and a piece of oak trim to hide the sections that get messy (at
the corner of the cabin top and hull). To give the trim work a functional
purpose, he decided to add ambient LED lighting.
Here’s how he did it:
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| David securing the headliner and drilling the pilot holes (left and center). The first row of Durasnaps (right). |
1.
Measure,
measure and, then for good measure, measure again.
2.
Draw
up a complicated set of plans.
3.
Glue
or screw a corner of the headliner in to hold the edge and get the job under
“control”.
4.
Layout
the design for the Durasnaps.
5.
Drill
the pilot hole and pray that your measurements were correct so that you don’t
go through the hull or cabin top.
6.
Screw
in the Durasnaps.
 |
| David adding the lights to the backing block on the port side. |
7.
Measure,
cut, route and varnish the trim work to match what’s already on the boat.
8.
Install
the backing piece for attaching the trim work.
9.
Add
the lighting strips to the backing piece.
 |
| David making up the 12 volt connection and wiring the starboard side. |
10.
Wire
the LED lights into the house lights.
11.
Add
the piece of trim work.
12.
And
voilà , Bob’s your uncle!
 |
| The salon starboard headliner after. |
The salon has been
finished for a few days now and we LOVE it. Not only do we FINALLY have red
lights for night passages, but they also shine in 15 other colours, dim, flash,
strobe and fade (all by remote control). And the best part is the two sections
burn less than 0.5 amps so we can leave them on at night for Sally who needs a
little help seeing these days.
Next up – the galley!
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