Thanks for the comments
Art:
This look wonderful. How did you attach the wood planks to the backing? What type of wood is this?
The wood is Ash planking, and I got it from Hunter whom were phenomenally supportive.
Here are a few more details:
Started off with a cardboard template. You have to make it in several steps, and then tap the whole thing together.
The backing wood was a high grade 3/8" marine ply.
The strips that were tacked onto the wall to get the surface level were just ash cut-off pieces.
The plywood was then screwed onto the ash planks, and directly into the core material where the surface met the ply.
When installing the planks, you liberally apply construction adhesive onto the back of each plank.
The ash planks were nailed on with a pneumatic nail gun.
The tiny depressions from the nails were filled with a custom wood filler mix that I whipped up to match the planks.
The porthole was tricky.
I took the bezel ring, and installed it back onto the port with long screws which overlapped the planks that had not been trimmed.
I then scribed the exact outline of the aluminum ring onto the ash slats.
Removed the ring, and carefully trimmed the ash with a trim saw.
One last hurtle...
The aluminum ring, in order to be flush to the ash planks, would leave a large air gap behind the trim ring to the port face.
I made an aluminum spacer which exactly took up the differential.
I honestly Looked at the vinyl wall for 3 seasons until I just couldn't take it anymore. And also.... I ran out of other things to do to the boat.