Head lining for Catalacs

[Deleted User]

Just taken ownership of a 9m Catalac in Falmouth, and it is in fine condition, but we knew we would need to renew the droopy vinyl head lining. We have spoken to a number of businesses who do and some do not do it in the Falmouth area and there are varying opinions. Some say use boards with vinyl covered, but this is tricky with nooks and crannies. Some say stick vinyl direct to fiber glass, but could be tricky around edges. Some say carpet velour type tiles is very neat, and can be done over tricky bits, e.g. sides and cheaper. Some say have vinyl for larger spaces and different color tiles for small difficult bits. Some say must get windows sent away to Norfolk and re rubber before any work can be done on lining.

Any ideas from colleagues. My head is spinning and my bank is whining!

Dick

Think_Again

Hi Dick,
Welcome to the world of Catalacs ! I dont think many owners can say they have not had a headlining problem, on Think Again we put up a few wooden battens which did the job but probably not every ones cup of tea, Talking to Peter Gimson(Me and Er) He was saying that a lot of boats use a valcro fitting so as to ease any need to get behind fore electrical installations etc. Also using a Hard Board templates that the Headlining can be glued to and then secured to the deck Head with about 4 securing screws, I believe special types of screw fittings can be purchased for this,
If you are going to the Meat & Eat i am sure it will make for some good conversation.
Best of luck Good sailing Bob...Think Again.

Scubacat

Hi Dick

On Scubacat we had very droopy headlinings, but I did not want to strip it all back, so I tried using thin 1cm battens, stained mahogany, and small brass screws. The result is a bit "Tudor", but effective. 

The trick was to get the screws in the right places. There seems to be thicker strengthening battens running crosswise, and screwing into these gives confidence that the screws will not protrude on the other side.

I managed to find some photos of before and after. I suppose one does not take "inside" pictures very often, so the before one is of my Daughter with a glass of red wine "before",

(Update 30 Oct).  I took a new "After" photo a few days ago to show the new headlining.

After: 

We actually have 4 battens. Two in the middle, holding up the main "droop". and two on the outer edge of the lining that hold up the lining into the corner.

Cheers!

Dagnall

Scubacat

I was going through some old Archives and found some more correspondence Circa 2006 on headlings that might be helpful: 

Deckhead lining: 

Having experienced a similar problem in our 8 metre "Minou Chaud" we came to a very satisfying solution.

We removed all the old head lining, cut and glued with wall panel adhesive small pieces of 4mm ply wood to the supporting ribs of the roof which left us with a smooth curved surface to work with. It was necessary to fix the ply with the odd screw in order to maintain the curves required. Having covered the whole area of the boat roof, we then stuck carpet to the ply wood with unibond, holding the carpet in place with staples fired through the carpet into the wood. Of course we had to spend hours removing the staples after the glue had set as they would have rusted if left in place. The end result is that we now have a solid roof that is well insulated and to date has given us nothing but satisfaction. The carpet cost about £100 and the rest of the materials about £70.  Caution! make sure you have made all the alterations you are likely to want to make to the wiring first as any later alteration will be far more difficult and avoid the use of foam backed carpet or you will be faced with a repeat of the problem you are trying to solve.

Hi Jude 

My 9m Catalac  - Hi Jude suffered from the same problem (droopy headlining).  I investigated this at length.  The same material that was used originally is still available, but the foam is now fire retardent and is not expected to last more than 10 years.  

Many lining specialists advocate replacing the lining in squares (approx. 2' square) which are individually secured to the ceiling.  The main advantage is that if you need to resecure anything on the deck above (e.g. winches, genoa track etc) then it is easy.  The main disadvantage with this method is that it lowers the ceiling, and it is already slightly too low for me (6'2").

I was unwilling to use the vinyl/foam product because of the cost/expected replacement period.

I then thought about using carpet.  The foam carpet would probably suffer from the same problem as the existing headlining, however, there is a new (relatively) carpet which is felt backed.  I thought this might be suitable and it is also pretty cheap for a lightweight carpet.  I then looked at glue.  A specialist warned me that most glues used by the lining companies are fine in this climate, but would start to melt if the boat was taken further south.  They recommended that the best glue would be that used in the car trade.  I then managed to twist the arm of my friendly carpet fitter and his mate to agree to do it.  I decided to remove the old lining and the residual glue myself  -  this is a very messy job, best done with the inside of the boat totally cleared of everything else.  I really recommend the dyson for this task!  I then (with a lot of help from my son!!) removed the old glue back to clean fibreglass.  You can get a flap wheel designed for this from the headlining people, but I used a brass cup wire brush mounted in a small angle grinder  - but it must be brass, and the grinder should be running at a slower speed than single speed grinders can otherwise it is very easy to grind down the fibreglass -  word of caution  wear full overalls and dust mask/glasses.  You are then ready to let the fitters do their thing, again it is easier if you remove the windows completely - it also lets you reseal them again afterwards!    To make the task possible, the main saloon headlining should be done in four sections, with a piece of wood used to cover the joins (fore and aft).  I made the task much simpler by taking the old headlining out carefully and using that as a template for the cuts  Apart from the minor problem of the car glue being so strong that it softened the bond between the felt and the carpet itself, this job went very well.  The cost of the carpet was less than the glue and about the same as that charged for the fitting.  I also purchased new screws for the windows of the next size up to make certain that I had a good fixing - this entailed some small amount of drilling, and a lot of screw cutting as I could not get the right length at the time. The end result is excellent and at a major saving over that quoted by headlining specialists.  It is a better insulator, looks better, and should last for a very long time.

Mark 

Sea Spirits

We have owned Sea Spirits for some 4 years now and when we purchased her the headlining in the saloon was very droopy. Not wishing to go to the time and expense of replacing the headlining we decided to try and re-fix it. I came up with the idea that since it was only hanging down across the middle and seemed fairly well stuck at the outboard edges we could fit battens across the span of the saloon, running athwartships. If we did this in two halves - from the centreline to port and to starboard - it would keep the length of the battens more manageable. We used softwood battens of a flat 'D' section, suitably painted, but I have since found a local plastic extrusion supplier who sells material of the same section but in expanded uPVC. Much lighter, more durable and easier to work. Once the battens were prepared it was then just a matter of holding them against the outboard edge of the saloon, forcing them up hard against the headlining, marking off the centreline of the saloon on the batten, cutting it to length and fixing it in place. This we did by feeling across the headlining until we found a longitudinal stiffener in the cabin top and then fixing the batten into place with 12mm stainless self tappers. In total we put up 3 battens across the full width of the saloon plus short sections around the edges in a number of places. It took my brother-in-law and I one afternoon to complete and 4 years on it still looks as good as the day we stood back and admired the finished product.

Dragonslayer

We had a different approach to this problem on Dragonslayer. As the lining is fitted to plywood panels on our 12 metre we carefully removed the vinyl from the ply and completely removed all of the foam from both surfaces. It was imperative that all debris was cleaned from the mating surfaces. A liberal application of uv wood glue was applied to both surfaces and the vinyl re-applied taking care to stretch the covering and temporarily holding it into place with a paper staple gun on the rear side of the panel. When the glue dried out the covering pulled tight and gave a very smooth finish. Great care has to be taken to make sure nothing gets between the surfaces. We managed to leave a bristle from the glue brush on the surface of one of the panels and increadably it shows through. The lower panels surrounding the windows were covered in a cheap burber carpet.