Roof Carpeting

Lars gets the carpet ready

The roof carpet was one of the ickiest things about the Arctic Fjord. It was light grey which showed the mildew very nicely and was also peeling off in a lot of conspicuous places: at least it was easy to rip out. First, Greg took down all the lights then the old carpet came down easily. Once it was all pulled out we patched the soft spots and sanded the ceiling.

I would have to be honest and say that I have never liked to see carpet anywhere except on a floor: you can't vacuum a wall can you? But roof carpeting seemed to be the only way to go on the Arctic Fjord, so we picked out a nice boaty blue and set to work. Once again, Lars was extremely helpful. Getting carpet onto the roof proved to be quite a tricky business: it took every last gallon of contact adhesive that could be purchased in Ketchikan and a rolling pin.

We cut the carpet (which is a carpet designed for boats) into 12x6 foot strips.  A layer of contact adhesive was applied to the carpet and to the ceiling and left to dry for 1 hour. Luckily, Fat Stan's Bar is at the top of the ramp: you could not stay in the boat while the contact was drying. Once the glue was ready, Greg and Lars carefully positioned the carpeting on the ceiling, then rolled over it with a rolling pin (just a regular one from the kitchen) until it stuck.

We had to cut out around the windows

The high section of the boat was tricky, because we only have one ladder and the carpet had to be cut out around the windows, but it looks good now that it is complete. Greg got the tarps out and almost all of the lights back up, ready for the first kayak event of the year.