INVESTIGATOR 563

Hi all,

I'm thinking of insulating the interior of my I563 with carpet style headliner (it's a thin soft carpet style that is also FIRE PROOF yay).

Recently I had the opportunity to chat with a fantastic bloke who owns a F31 Trimaran located at the Port Dalrymple Yacht Club who had this liner throughout his Tri plus I've seen this on quite a few other boats.
I was actually looking for the Trimaran "Wings of Fantasy" as I've just finished reading their story of journeys from WA to Tas. What a fantastic read. I noticed their Trimaran for sale in Beauty Point so dropped in to have a look on my Way home (Penguin) from Hobart.
Well....sadly, the Trimaran was moored at George Town but as I wandered about the boats I noticed a superb looking Trimaran an F31. the owner was on board, saw me 'loitering' lol and after a few pleasantries invited me on board to have a look.

Firstly, the tri although how shall I put it....although, compact is very liveable for 2 and easily liveable for 4-6 on a weekender only. I'm pretty much sold on a F31 as my investment in a few years but that's a long way off yet.

Ok.....back to the head liner. When I noticed his head liner, I also noticed all the deck fitting bolts were showing (no differently as if it was bare F/G. This made sense because 1stly you could see the condition of the fittings and 2ndly the fittings were not covered thus keeping moisture against them.

Given that ALL of my fittings are off my I563 and I plan on replacing ALL nuts. bolts and screws this is an opportune time to cover the interior with the same style material because I can then reinstall my deck fittings through the head liner as well...
My searches have indicated that with a headliner installed moisture dripping off the bare F/G is zero and the insulation of the boat greatly increases. I'm running conduit for my cabling so I'll leave a line run for future additions (although, I have no plans to add more to the interior because I'm doing it all now)

Thoughts on headliners ??
Cheers, Pete

Don't know if carpet is a good thing on a boat Pete, It always seems to go mouldy and ends up smelling musty, paint is good.

Practical Boat Owner magazine had some good articles on insulating under the deck. Remember that you need a vapour barrier plus insulation.

I think there was a discussion on TSP on liner. From memory you need the stuff that will stretch and bend in both directions so it does not bunch up when following the contours of the inside of the boat. .

Good luck , lots of pics please. Might do it myself

I have another boat with a vinyl roof lining like you would find in a car, It looks fantastic, skin tight and was very well fitted, So well fitted infact that it was too difficult for the previous owner to remove when adding more hardware to the cabin roof so the fastenings that were added go right through the vinyl and are visible in the cabin space. Like my 563 it also has carpet lining the walls of the hull and it is mouldy. I have torn up allot of the carpet in the 563 and I now have the task of removing the vast quantities of contact cement (quik grip) that is still stuck on the hull, what a pain in the butt, I would never put carpet in my boat. Or should I say I would never GLUE carpet into my boat

Steve