Need quick and cheap fix for cabin walls

[Hilary]

Hey all, thanks for all the advice on rebedding the portlights. Turned out not to be too bad a project (had to redo the first one!). Now the problem is the wood that was rotted under. We don’t have time/money/patience/ability to redo the cabin walls. Are there any suggestions out there for patching the rotted areas? The wood between the portlights and under about halfway across just crumbled but the rest seems ok Thanks!

 

[reginaldobaker]

What that saying, something like: "quality, speed, low price - choose two"

Don't mean to come across as a cynic but can you clarify what types of suggestions may be of interest given the time/patience constraints?

From a functionality standpoint this wood seems cosmetic.

 

[Hilary]

What that saying, something like: "quality, speed, low price - choose two"

Don't mean to come across as a cynic but can you clarify what types of suggestions may be of interest given the time/patience constraints?

From a functionality standpoint this wood seems cosmetic.

Not cynical at all - I should have mentioned that we need to fix this because we are trying to sell her (and get something bigger hopefully in the near future). Trying to pretty her up a bit.

 

[Christian Williams]

The fast solution to that is curtains. They hide many sins.

If the rest of the wood is there, but ugly, sand and paint with Interlux Hatteras Off White (match headliner) or any house paint you like.

From this thread:

 

[gargrag]

Hi, we did this work on the cheap side.

our portlights were in bad shape, it was raining as outside.

the first step was to remove all 5 portlights, and then we tried to pain them with no success. Ended up paying for powder coating.

we bought a kit from catalinadirect that comes with silicone and rubber trim , so all good on that side.

Then for the "walls" we used homedepot vinyl. glued with contact cement and some gorilla glue

 

[paul culver]

FRP in white, smooth side out.

 

[Nick J]

If you're just trying to sell it, scarf in a section of 1/4" ply. you can cover the edge with trim, staple the underdeck headliner to the new section and reinstall the trim piece. Disclose it to the new buyer.

If you're looking to keep it or do a proper fix. remove the port lights (rebuild them while you're at it), remove the whole piece of plywood, and replace with a new piece. Mahogany or teak faced 1/4" ply works well and is fairly inexpensive, but you can go with a cheaper face ply and paint like Christian said above. make sure to seal the edge of the new ply exposed to the portlights to prevent this from happening again. When I did the side of my 25+ a few years ago, I used the portlight openings as clamping surfaces. Once the glue (thickened epoxy on mine) cured, I cleaned up the edge of the new ply with a trim router.

Here's one of the threads I posted to with my experience:

Atach Cabin Side Plywood

(Pictures are of the template and before the recore) Now that the recore on the port side is done, its time to install the new piece of teak plywood. I've thought about vacuum bagging it, but the aft section would be next to impossible to create a seal and I don't think I could line up the...

ericsonyachts.org

There's a few other posts floating around here with some good information as well

 

[reginaldobaker]

I'd lean towards making the cover up as temporary as possible in case future owner would like to improve upon things.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

I'd lean towards making the cover up as temporary as possible in case future owner would like to improve upon things.

I'm with you. It's a balance, trying to create curb appeal but not botch things up too much for the next person. I'm grateful that we didn't have to undo undesirable repairs/revisions.