A great deal of the work required to bring a GRP boat back
to life is pretty mindless. Lots of sanding polishing and painting – and it
takes a long time. But let’s put a positive spin on this – it gives you time to
think, and one thing I have learned is that there is always more than one
solution to the next problem. How to fit a bulkhead? How to get the best paint
effect? Whether to use oil or vanish on the woodwork? How to renovate old
Formica surfaces? Another thing I have learned is that the first solution is
rarely the best. So time provides room for thought.
Throughout the renovation project I have given a great deal
of thought to the cabin interior and I have
come up with lots of ideas – most
of which I have had to reject on the basis of cost or feasibility. This boat is
an early example of a westerly and also an early example of GRP. The building
process in those days (1968-9) was to make a mould and pour Gel-coat into it.
Once the Gel was pretty much set, the boat-builders would then lay layer after
layer of GRP mat over it, soaking each layer in resin. In some places, more mat
was added to provide strength and rigidity. The outcome was a boat with a
beautiful mirror-like exterior and a pretty rough, industrial looking,
interior. The ugly straw coloured interior would often receive a coat of gloss
white paint to finish her off.
Well maybe taste was different in those days, maybe
purchasers found the treatment attractive. To my 21 century eyes however, the
interior of the Westerly Nomad cabin is less attractive than the inside of a
gent’s toilet on a bus station.
First question has to be why do I find this so unattractive?
Second question – what can I do about it? Well, let’s face it – various layers
of chopped glass fibre mat laid unevenly can never be attractive. The whole
surface is lumpy. In some places where additional mat has been added, you can
actually see the fibre – glued to the surface like a bandage. When you add
gloss paint the surface sparkles randomly. It is as if the light accentuates the
unevenness of the finish.
Later Westerly’s had foam backed vinyl head-linings attached
to marine ply templates screwed to the cabin roof but they too had their
problems. Over time, the foam deteriorated to a fine black dust and the glue
failed leaving many owners with a problem that be came known as ‘Westerly
droop’. Sagging vinyl isn’t attractive and today the cost of replacement foam
backed vinyl is exorbitant. I didn’t want to spend the money – and anyway, I’m
not prepared to invest in a solution that seems not to work.
Looking at brochures for expensive modern yachts, I was
attracted to an idea of using regularly
spaced wooden lats along the cabin roof to give an impression of a wooden yacht. The lats maybe four inches
(10cms) wide and about a quarter-inch (6cms) thick run the length of the roof and between each
one there is maybe a three or four inch gap. They seem to accentuate the length
of the cabin and they provide a handcrafted kind of warmth to an otherwise
industrial cold GRP surface. At the time of writing, this is what I am aiming
for but before that I need to improve the background GRP somehow.
Having sanded all the interior wood and GRP I decided to
paint the GRP surfaces but unlike the original builder I decided to try for a
mat finish in the hope that the flattened paint would draw less attention than
the high gloss used before.
I have read on the internet about paint used on the interior
of boat cabins. Some writers declare that a standard home interior paint is all
that is required. Others suggest that the climate in a boat cabin is more
extreme and suggest that a kitchen or bathroom paint is more appropriate. Some
have also reported good results using exterior masonry paint. I guess most of
these writers were basing their choice on cost. Obviously home products are
cheaper than those specifically designed for the marine environment. One thing
they seem to have overlooked however, is that the actual amount of paint required
is quite small. Paint for house walls tends to come in large containers. It may
be cheap, but the cost is high if you have to purchase a much larger tin than
you need – especially if you don’t have another use for it. I did the sums, a
small tin of marine quality paint would be all I needed, and the cost was
little more than a large tin of inferior house paint.
I chose International Paints ‘Toplac’ a one pot paint I have become familiar with. It is high gloss, but fortunately International also
produce a ‘matting agent.’, add it to the paint and you have a flat mat finish –
perfect!
So the white bits inside the cabin have been treated to
degreasing, sanding, two coats of undercoat and a Matted Toplac finish.
If you are thinking about a similar treatment however,
please note. Toplac without matting agent is high gloss, Toplac with 25%
matting agent produces a ‘satin finish’, and Toplac mixed 50%/50% with matting
agent gives you an ‘eggshell finish’. If you really want matt (as I did) you
have to work with a mixture of 25% paint to 75% matting agent. Be aware therefore,
that these matt topcoats contain very little pigment, you’ll need to build up
several coats to get the depth of colour, and even then, the final result will
be highly depended on the thickness of undercoat you were able to create
beforehand.
So, the cabin now has four coats of paint on painted
surfaces and five coats of Woodskin on the wooden areas. It has been a lot of
work just to achieve a blank canvass, but worth it …………. I think.
Seaward
