Finally sourced some materials – over a month of phone calls, emails coordination to get delivered to SXM (St. Maarten) from San Juan.

Loading 4×8 sheets of into the dinghy from the delivery truck in Phillipsburg, was quite the fun and then loading the 12 sheets from the dinghy into the mothership in the wind was like kite surfing holding directly onto the kite.  The shipping weight was 700lbs – tho each sheet only weighed in at 15lbs.

Taking down the deteriorating corrugated ceiling is more work than it looks like.  The panels are held in place by gobs of silicon adhesive, after first cutting them down, they crack and drop pieces every where.  But then the real work happens, removing all the left over silicone.

Its taking about a full day per panel and we haven’t even tried the ones with lights in them yet.  So at the very least it will take 7 days if we were to do nothing but work upside down.  That is taking one down and cleaning ( surface prep ) and cutting and fitting a new one, and running the tape.

Now trying to decide beige or white, as the material was pretty in expensive so ordered enough of both colors to try out.

The material is 3mm Komatex PVC foam sign board (we bought ours from Caribbean Signs) usually used for outside signage.  Will be held in place by 3M VHB tape.  Hopefully it will not deteriorate as in the heat and humidity.

Beige panels up and testing

In the end decided to go for basic plain ole white, here you can see we have 2 left to replace, the white actually lightens up the space.  But I miss the character of the cracks and peeling. The goal was to have it finished by the Heineken Regatta,as that is some serious fun.

Made it this far, 5 of 7 panels before the Heineken Regatta. The wind just wasnt cooperating to take a small kiteboard out on deck to try and cut it.  On one occasion I tried, saw a break in the wind but only after getting all set up noticed a rain cloud, er squall, coming.  Placed the gallon jug used to clean the silicon on top of the sheets that was 1/2 way cut, whoosh the whole mess went flying. The sheet got stopped by the lifeline breaking the sheet at the cut and ruining one of the outlined panels.  The mineral spirits jug went overboard, Christine tried to get it with the new boat hook, but the wind was just too fast.  Dropped the dinghy to go retrieve in the down pour.  All is well, I had ordered extras, and I guess we could still go beige.  The knife I was using to cut the stuff also went for a swim. A day later when it wasn’t quite as silted up, tried to find it for an hour and two more times after that without any luck, you would have thought a bright red and shiny knife would stick out on a sandy bottom. Oh well, we have a back up of that too.

Carefully slicing through the silicone used to hold them up, and not to cut the old panel as it will be used as the template when cutting new ones.

Now in St Bart’s, its gusty but the last two panels were cut and ready – time to finish this project. Test fitting and scuffing up the edges on the last panel and noticed a crack that probably happened when that panel tried to go swimming. Ugh, one more to cut and its gusty here in this bay. Grab Christine and 2 sheets of material, one white and one gray, gray for working surface and wait for a lul. No major issues last sheet cut and installed.

Almost done just the last 2 light fixtures to go

Finished product at night

The real test will be to see if they last while sailing in big waves, as I’m sure there is some flex that goes on. If they do come down might just have to source wider VHB tape.