With the electrical work started and other prep done in the aft stateroom laundry closet, next I got busy cutting and fitting the overhead ceiling panel. In all of the open areas in the salon, galley, v-berth, and aft stateroom, I’ll use Whisper Wall material as the headliner. But in the bathrooms and closet spaces, I’m going with 1/4″ Doug fir marine plywood that’s painted on the visible face and insulated on the back-side.
The last sheet of 1/4″ marine ply was on the bottom of the stack
The plywood stack is like a progress-o-meter. If I’ve calculated materials right, I’ll run out of mahogany ply on the last bit of cabinetry. I’m down to six sheets of 1/2″ and two of 1/4″.
Measuring the overhead width
It’s a boat…nothing’s square. I find I get the best fit in this sort of situation if I use two sticks to gauge the actual distance, then measure the sticks with a tape.
Laying out the cut lines
Rough cuts are done…time to see if it fits
Very close…but not quite there
The aft deck is angled down a bit heading aft, and the ceiling here isn’t square. What I found is that the panel doesn’t come close to fitting if I insert it leading edge first…or any other edge, for that matter. But it almost slides right into place if I put the aft outer corner in first, then slide the aft inner corner most of the way home, and then push the inner edge up into place. But the outer forward corner was getting hung up.
Need to knock off a bit there to get the angles matching
It was still a bit tight along the leading edge of the panel when I tried to fit it again.
Shaving off a bit on the aft edge should do the trick
So close, but yet so far…
A bit more trimming, and it slid right into place.
Boom
Mark off the backside for epoxy and insulation
Saturate the panel with epoxy
Lay on the Buffalo Batt insulation, and press it in place
With all of the insulation I’m using and with the interior spaces almost completely isolated from the hull envelope, this boat should be very comfortable temperature-wise all year round.
Unfortunately, I’m a clown sometimes
I forgot to mark off gaps for the overhead frames before laying on the epoxy and insulation. So after the epoxy cured I had to remove strips of insulation so the panel would seat on the frames. On the upside, I now have tested the stability of the panel-epoxy-nonwoven insulation fabric bond and found it to be (irritatingly) robust. That stuff’s never coming off on its own!
I had to remove one more strip of insulation at the marks, then it was done
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: More Progress in the Laundry Closet
1969chriscraftroamer46 