V-Berth Insulation, Part 6, New Plywood Headliner

This job was a break from grinding, sanding, and sticky epoxy work. It felt like a vacation, making templates and cutting plywood.

Project Notes

The v-berth overhead was made from two sheets of 1/4” Okoume plywood. There are a couple of small, but usable offcuts leftover. The Okoume is lightweight, but pricy. One 1/4” sheet weighs in at 18 pounds and cost us $88 plus tax and transportation. It has been a nice material to work with. The swirls and patterns on each sheet are beautiful.

We made templates for each headliner section from plastic cardboard. We cut strips of the plastic from a big sheet, and then cut smaller pieces as we need them. We taped some pieces overhead, and then used hot melt glue to add more. The plastic frames were strong enough to hold their shape until we marked and cut the plywood to match. We gave ourselves plenty of data points to work with in tricky areas by adding more pieces. 

Brian used each template to mark the plywood, and then cut the wood with a jigsaw. After we fit each plywood section to the overhead frames, the plastic template was easily pulled apart and reused, again and again. 

Next steps are: to cut out port lights, to seal the plywood with paint or varnish, to countersink for fasteners, to add trim at all the seams, etc. The finishing details will take time, and we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to gain momentum and work faster. But for just a moment we paused and looked at the panels, and how they fit together, and Brian said “If it were any more exact, it wouldn’t be our boat.”