Our original headliner was a modern conventional cloth padded panel with minimal lighting. The panels were removable, but with difficulty. Teak strips hid the joints, but visible fasteners appeared evey foot. We decided to replace the ceiling with the clean look of varnished clear yellow cedar, a classic finish. We would also double the lighting.
We know this will be a messy and invasive job, as each board must be cut to fit on site. A chop saw will reside in the salon, the only place big enough to cut 10' long boards. Even with a vacuum system, sawdust will abound. We moved out all the furniture, bedding, window treatments and refrigerator, removed the ceiling panels, and preserved the existing lighting, temporarily remounted.
The ceiling has hidden wire routing path between different areas in the boat. Once installed the finished ceiling will not be removeable. We'll need to accomodate any future wire changes with either small removable panels or wiring tubes with pull wires installed.During the course of this project we will purchase three sets of yellow cedar for a total of 430 board feet. A board foot is defined as 1" thick x 12" wide x 12" length. The important features in selecting the wood are:
- Vertical clear grain, no knots, little flat grain
- Low moisture content, less than 10%
- Rough cut board dimension are a size that efficiently uses the wood to obtain planks with a final dimension of 1/2" thick, 3.75" wide and 5' to 10' long.
- A quarter of the material must be 10' long, another quarter must be 8', the remaining is 5'.
The first set of material is from a local lumber yard, remants from a larger order, eight rough boards 2"x 8" x8'. We were able to ban saw each of these into 6 planks, producing a total of 48 boards. 
The second is from a log scavenged by a trucker working for a lumber company. Advertizing on craigslist, he operates a "boutique" saw mill on his property in Maple Falls, Washington. We visited him while he was cutting the rough boards out of the log. The log had been on the ground for awhile, but the wood was still not dry. He took the lumber to a kiln and dried them for two weeks. When we received them they were 5% moisture content. He delivered over one hundred boards half of which were 10' long.
Taking delivery of the dried boards
After sizing all the boards on the table saw to a standard size the next task is planing. With over 200 boards at an average length of 8' we filled fifteen 55 gallon bags with cedar chips. They all came from planing rough cut 3/4" boards down to 1/2" which was the final thickness that was truly smooth. With all the dust and noise, respirators and ear protection is a must.
A rack is built to hold the boards during various steps. It holds 50 boards. It will be used to fume the boards and also for drying the varnish
Touches per task
Unload 1
Size 2
Plane 12
Mill 2
Sand 1
Tach 1
Fume 1
Varnish 4
Transport 1
Store 1
Each board is inspected to see which side is preferred. Often a knot on one side will not show on the other, or color variations may be preferred on one side versus the other. 
Fuming is the next step once the boards have the tongue and groove. They must be sanded before fuming. The fuming actentuates and deepens the natural yellow color. Strong industrial strength 5%ammonia is the vapor which reacts with the cedar. It is so strong that tape around the goggles is necessary to protect the eyes from the fumes. We set up the fuming tent outside the house on the back porch. Fortunately we had no strong winds that evening.
Each board is varnished with one coat of shellac and three coats of marine varnish, Interlux Goldspar.
Selection of the planks is made for each room, looking for color combinations and matching the length requirement in each section. Lumber packages are assembled with the boards numbered for each room's installation. Finally the material is ready to install!
Bringing the material down to the boat presents its own challenges. We need to acclimate the wood to the boat's humidity for a week before installing. There is precious little room.
While the wood acclimates, we start to rewire the additional lights. Most of the switches remain the same as the wires are buried in the walls. But we do have some access inside the cabinets and in the ceiling for slight modifcations. Adding switches in the cabinet requires enlarging the switch hole.
New wires are installed and terminated for the lights.
On the left the cascade of wires go either to the entertainment center on the opposite side of the refrigerator cabinet or they go to the generator panel, yet to be reinstalled. We installed a pipe for these wires with a pull. On the right a simple board and hinged 2x4 makes a great work platform on these stairs. |
| We continue wiring in the pilot house. This will go on through the entire boat. |
The chop saw is set-up in the salon with the central vac collecting much of the sawdust. It is still very dusty. Making each cut is time consuming. There is often a compound angle in the front that must be measured, then the length is measured. Moving the board into the correct position for the cut is often like a chinese Qigong exercise. To turn a 10' board requires you to take it out the door onto the deck turn it around while weaving the end between each of the vertical stantions and then returning inside. Starting a new room, we sometimes only put up two boards in an hour.
The first boards go up in the salon. A center board with both sides a tongue is first and we work our way out to each side.
These boards are installed with glue at each of the lath joints and brad nails in the tongue.
A clamp tool is used to force each new board's groove into the last board's tongue. Some of these long boards were slightly warped making this clamp invaluable to achieving tight joints.
As we pass each light location with a board we stop to drill the hole and then pull the wires down. It is difficult with wood debris falling in your face as you drill. It's stressful, as the drill has the nasty habit of grabbing the wood as it cuts, wanting to skip across the newly installed varnish cedar. We hold the wires out of the way with an extension string, but it is often periliously close once we see the wiring through the hole.
A finished section of the ceiling. By the end of the installation we will have spent more than 1,000 hours of labor. Imagine that at a boat yard labor rate of $80/hour!
