An Overhaul of Farr Beyond

One look at the cabin lining from my wife [ mouldy and stained] and the decision was made, off with the lining.

This lining went from berth port side, up over the cabin roof to berth starboard side including pop top and internal shelving. Unfortunately many fittings  had to be removed to complete this job so it was at this stage that the decision was made to do a complete overhaul of the interior, which then led onto the exterior !!

The lining came off easily but the adhesive was left behind on the fibre glass, this appeared to be adios glue. Many hours were spent patiently cleaning this glue off with car painters thinning solvent. At this point it’s worth mentioning that significant savings can be made on all products that require purchasing if you buy from the wholesalers eg $4 versus $21 for a one litre tin of thinners [used 10 lts ] and stainless steel importers verses retail outlets.

The marine cloth I used to reline the interior of the yacht was a 2.5 x 20 mt roll worth $1100 which I purchased as a seconds roll from Spotlight for $180. It had two small visible marks but I believe that it was the end of a production run.

Various moldings and trims had to be removed and replaced with new ones purchased from a local car upholstery shop which became very helpful for all those trims, plastic/stainless buttons, glue and other fittings. The pop top was removed, dismantled, cleaned and reassembled with its new cloth lining, also new stainless steel push button domes were fitted to both pop top and exterior cabin for when the PVC curtain is in use.

I used the old cloth lining as a template and marked out around this allowing 50 mm extra on the  outside diameter. It takes two people to lift and glue into place. The cloth goes up as two halves measuring from the bottom of the front windscreen finishing behind the end of side windows, from centre of the cabin roof down to port/starboard shelving. Adios glue was applied by hand brush to the cabin fibreglass and next onto the cloth which was positioned on a long/wide board for ease of application inside the yacht.

We attached the cloth first to the roof central line and worked our way sideways and downwards on the main surface areas, with a couple of nip and tucks to position the cloth properly. Once the cloth was positioned and glue dry, the material covering the  windows can be cut out and glued into the fibreglass rebate that is around the exterior circumference of the windows. This rebate allows the material to sit flush with the fiberglass so the windscreen can sit flush . The major problem with this is that the windscreen will need removing to access this rebate but this aids with ventilation when using the thinners and glue in a confined space, be aware of this danger it’s very real.

To achieve a nice straight material joint between the two halves of material on the centre of the cabin roof , leave two material overlaps when initially fitting the cloth, now glue one overlap down and allow it to dry, next fold the other overlap over the top of the  glued down overlap and run a very sharp knife with a flexible straight edge [ steel ruler ] all the way down as far as needed, remove excess material, apply glue to the last overlap , butt the two material edges together and press down.

With the excess lining material left over from the 20 mt roll I was able to line the bow sleeping berth and its surrounding area eg roof. Also lining was glued to the starboard/port sides at the rear of the cabin. I used approximately 15 litres of Adios glue F55 which is a thin glue designed for spraying and is touch dry in three minutes. In hindsight  instead of brushing the glue on it would have been far easier, cheaper,  quicker and cleaner to have brought a cheap spray gun and sprayed the glue onto the cloth and fibreglass.