V-Berth Renovation – Leaky Windows and Rotten Plywood Panels

It’s late April and now the pressure is on; my partner is soon to be moving onto a boat that is far from finished and it’s now my job to make the boat habitable for two people. I have discovered that my standards of living are a lot lower than most peoples and what I’ve been “putting up with” is no longer going to cut it.   The man cave/ bedroom that I have been residing in for the last few months is no longer suitable. The main cabin was the first room on the boat that I insulated meaning I could close the door to the wheel house and remain warm and comfortable throughout the winter.  Now my partner plans on moving onto the boat in a weeks time so we need to move the bedroom from the main cabin to the V-berth.  We are hoping we will both comfortably fit in the V-berth but measurements aside only time can tell and there’s nothing I hate more than crushed feet!

In the V-berth I used closed cell foam followed by aluminium bubble insulation. The closed cell foam I found at a packaging store in Bristol; it had been previously been used for transportation but they let me take 2 sheets of it for £5.00 each. A bargain I wasn’t going to pass on! The aluminium bubble insulation I purchased from Toolstation at £58 for 25 meters. You can buy it here https://www.toolstation.com/shop/Heating+%26+Insulation/d230/Foil/sd3426/YBS+AirTec+Double+Insulation/p65994 It was cheaper than Screwfix but I had to walk around Bristol and get on a train holding a giant roll of insulation on the hottest day in April since records began.  Hard to imagine that 4 weeks previous I had been walking 7 miles in the snow because of inept transportation, but that is a story for another day.

To replace the rotten plywood panels at the sides I used Spruce cladding.  This was a pain in the ass to install because of the contours that shape the V-berth. At one stage I was holding my entire body weight from a piece of cladding trying to make the wood bend before screwing it down.  I was happy with the end result but in the future I would consider a thicker, bendier and prettier wood.

Now It’s time to take a look at the roof of the V-berth and see the shoddy attempts of past renovators.

Checkout the Video

Seamaster 950 closed cell foam insulation.
Insulating a V-Berth
Spruce cladding in a Seamaster 950 V-Berth

 

 

 

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