Topic: Fiberglass Cabinliner

If you remove the headliner, you'll see the bottom of the plywood decks.  I've got lots of pictures if my boat all apart, I'll try to send them sometime in the next week.  The cracks in the headliner at the mast beam are from the fact that the posts are not actually attached to the beam, and just push up on the liner and deck.  Solution will be to fix (thru bolt maybe) the posts to the beam.  If the headliner is all blistered, then there is no doubt that the plywood deck is all wet and rotten.  I'll send you some pictures of my 74. Cheers

Stefan

Re: Fiberglass Cabinliner

stefan-

how did you remove your headliner?  how did you (or plan to) replace it after your deck repairs?

please do send pictures when you get the chance.  the previous owner of my 1973/74 totally gutted the interior of bulkheads, furniture, etc. so there is nothing in place to go on.  thankfully i found this forum and the contessa corner site!

-cody

Re: Fiberglass Cabinliner

I might have the same problem on my 74, could you send me the pictures as well?
Is it possible to just drill holes in the deck and fill it with epoxy from the top?

Re: Fiberglass Cabinliner

i haven't removed the entire headliner yet but the coach roof is solid laminate around a vent thru fitting amidships...  i'm hoping this is true for the entire coach roof.  i have plenty of plywood in other places of the boat though, eg. vertical sides of cockpit seats.

i'm working on the best way to remove the headliner in the least pieces and without undue damage and i'm very open to suggestions.

cody

Re: Fiberglass Cabinliner

Doubtful that the coachroof is indeed solid laminate - if you look real close it looks like about .040 or so (1 mm for you metric folk) of laminate in the form of pressboard or doorskin.  I hear that in early english boats (not just Co's) they used something similar, and it would be reasonable to infer that early Canadian boats were similarly built.

As far as the cabintop goes, I'm just working on injecting the voids from the top.  It doesn't seem that the bottom layer on my boat has come downwards, but there are lots of voids on top.  I'm going to re gelcoat the works, so I'm drilling a few more holes than average.

The side decks, in the earlier boats, are all plywood and are prone to wetness.  Not fun to fix.  That's all I say.  If they're wet, which the probably are, then the only solution is replacement.  I'll get some pictures up as soon as I can...

Cheers

Stefan

Re: Fiberglass Cabinliner

Cody - did you buy that boat that was all apart and advertised on here a while ago?  The one with the nice trailer?  It probably has solid side decks - no wood.  Man that would have been nice....... 

Looks like a project like mine...  Just curious..  Cheers

Re: Fiberglass Cabinliner

yes i bought the boat in ohio with the trailer.  she is very nice and seems structurally sound except for the lack of bulkheads.

-cody

Re: Fiberglass Cabinliner

she's a beautiful boat.  being a JR boat, you probably have solid decks, so disregard all my ranting about plywood.  i wish i would have totally known what i was getting myself into...  when you're done, it'll be the best contessa out there.  so's mine.  because if yours (mine, anyone's....) has weak points that you observe and fix, then damn near every other boat does.

as long as you get something in there before you go sailing....  just make sure that you've got something to load up in compression between the ceiling and the floor...  that and if you ever head off sailing i'll buy that trailer...  if i don't make one by then (that's #1 on the job list once i'm sailing....)

keep an eye on eBay for an engine...  i've seen more than a half dozen yanmar 1gm and 1gm10's come up for sale in the last year - varying from 15 years old never installed to ready for a rebuild....

Re: Fiberglass Cabinliner

anyone had problems with the fiberglass cabin headliner?  apparantly, on my 1974 boat, deck leaks seeped between the liner and deck.  the result is a badly blistered headliner.  now the head liner is not uniformly attached to the deck. 

even more disconcerning is a large fore and aft crack in the headliner where it covers transverse mast support beam (at the corner where the beam turns downward from the coachroof to the can side).  i'll need to get under the headliner to inspect and repair the possibly damaged beam...

of course i will fill or seal all deck fittings to stop future leaks but what should i do about the headliner itself?

why not remove it?  or should i attempt repairs?

thanks in advance for any advice.

-cody