Interior renovation

[Thom]

I have a 1978 O'Day 23 and on the interior walls, there is cloth covering similar to burlap. In the forward birth mainly, this cloth covering has seperated from the fiberglass walls and is sagging down. I have noticed that on several new boats, they wood paneling for the interior. I have been thinking about taking out the cloth, and using bare wood "bead-board" panneling, or oak strips in its place that I can stain and varnish to give my boat more of an updated or "wood boat" look on the inside.Has anyone replaced their interior cloth with wood? How did you attach it to the fiberglass to keep it from pulling loose from the curve of the walls? Or, has anyone tried this and found it to be a bad idea?Thanks,Thom

 

[Sean Fleming]

Thom,Pick up the current issue of Sail magazine. There's an article in there that describes in detail the process you are looking to undertake. I plan on modifying my interior in a similar fashion. Last winter I applied wainscot to wood blocks epoxied to the interior hull - looked great but did not withstand the flexing of the hull (blocks popped off). The procedure described in the Sail article seems bullet-proof. Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.-SRF