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Linoleum? That hasn't been used in houses or boats for ages. Plastic laminate aka Formica, Wilson Art, etc is used today. Or you can do something in wood:
That is a table I made for a customer this fall. You don't have to get as complicated. You can just use wood strips or even a nice veneer plywood. Using wood will require varnish though. And it is more easily damaged than other surfaces.
But if you are looking for no maintenance, I would use a laminate, stone or a composite. Stone or one of the composites like Corian are nice, but very expensive and heavy. But they are certainly beautiful and no maintenance.
Dave Finnegan
builder of Spindrift 9N #521 'Wingë'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gresham’s Law of information: Bad information drives out good. No matter how long ago a correction for a particular error may have appeared in print or online, it never seems to catch up with the ever-widening distribution of the error.
Linoleum is still available and is exactly as it was since the beginning. (I did not like it when I was a kid and I don't like it now.)
I'm fond of epoxy-coated and varnished wood countertops. I've done four in the house: maple, oak, heart pine. I also like oiled wood, but not in wet areas. I replaced the Formica top on the Morgan's 'chart table' when it delaminated off of the fir plywood casework. I used a heat gun to get the rest of the contact cement off and epoxied a new surface of 1/16" mahogany veneer. Since it was only going to be wet by port leaks (and there wern't any, then), I varnished the wood.
I use West's 105 and Clear coating hardener, a couple coats worked, laboriously, to perfectly flat, and either varnish or urethane.
If you really want stone, you can get 1/4" stone of your choice laminated to 3/4" aluminum honeycomb. It's sold for countertops in fancy yachts and more normally, for exterior facing panels of buildings. The reduced weight of the steel structure more than paid for the slightly-more-expensive-than-real-1"-stone honeycomb panels on the National Constitution Center penthouses in Philadelphia.
Plenty of solid surfacing choices out there: Corian etc.
None of that lovely Hirlonde marquetry for me! It's too hard to have to anchor in accordance with it.
I think in a boat with a mostly natural wood interior, a light Formica looks very nice and appropriate. In an interior with mostly white or light paint--the traditional Herreshoff interior--then epoxy coated natural wood counters can add some extra warmth. It's all in what you like.
I am in the process of redoing my galley as well. I am replacing my Formica laminated counter-top with Corian. I happen to be redoing my kitchen at home and has an extra-section of Corian left. You can find a lot of information on Corian and how to work with it by Google-ing. I would recommend that you read Jim Baldwin's write up on his website (Nicholson 31 Interior Makeover) http://www.atomvoyages.com/projects/Nicholson.htm. It has a detailed desciption of an ordeal he went through but is an excellent learning material.
A number of big name yacht builders are now starting to use Corian (or similar material). Hinckley and Harbor (built by Schuck) to name a couple. I find the material fairly easy to work with but smells terrible (I love the teak smell when you mill them). I recommend Corian because they are tough and easy to clean. If you use teak or mahogany trim the end result should be satisfactory from a functional and asthetic point of view. This is what Jim did with Nicholson 31 and another picture of Harbor 25 interior which I saw first handedly.
Just my two cents.
Although normally I would think "Eek, heavy!" about Corian, there won't be much of it left after (if) you recess the sink and stove on an Alberg 30, so it probably wouldn't add that much weight. And it is nice.
I don't think Starboard would work very well at all: Hard to seal things to, hard to clean, etc.
We had ash strip countertops on the cruising boat (came that way), and when we changed the sink arrangement we took it down to bare wood, then epoxy coated the vulnerable spots and varnished over that. No problems in a couple years of living aboard, although we didn't let water just sit there either.
I agree that laminate can look nice too, especially if the edges are covered up by wood fiddles. You can't cut on it like you can on Corian, but then most people have cutting boards.
Note the lip/fiddle "molded" in at the edge. To me, this makes the most sense since solid surface material like corian was made for things like this. Yes, the teak looks nice and teaky, but I find it a pain on countertops where water and soap is often splashed around ruining the varnish.I was able to get this piece and the molding through someone on eBay.
I've been contemplating using corain in the galley, but because of the larger area I'd like to save some weight and use 1/4" thick corian epoxied to plywood. I saw it used on a Gunboat catamaran at the boatshow with the corian-made fiddle.
Corian is HEAVY. West system says they have had success epoxying corian to plywood too. While corian is available in 1/4", it is much harder to find unless you go through a contractor. 1/2" corian is standard.
That table is beautiful. Can I ask how thin the sections are for each point in your star? Did you cut from a plywood or a veneer?
Rachel wrote:Hirilonde.... wow.
Thanks both.
The table is 3/8" solid teak with a holly, poplar, mahogany, purple heart and ebony compass rose assembled in jigsaw puzzle fashion and epoxied to 3/4" okoume marine plywood. So it really isn't a veneer. Plywood is incredibly stable, yet veneers are too easily damaged beyond repair. I figure this way I get the best of both worlds.
It does make for massive amounts of labor, which interprets in money for the customers. It took 80 hours not including varnish. I don't know how much time the varnishers spent. In this case, money was no object.
Some good info on several options posted here. Best to you Jeff with what ever you end up choosing.
Dave Finnegan
builder of Spindrift 9N #521 'Wingë'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gresham’s Law of information: Bad information drives out good. No matter how long ago a correction for a particular error may have appeared in print or online, it never seems to catch up with the ever-widening distribution of the error.
Corian is very heavy. I was surprised how heavy a piece of 26"x33" half inch counter top can be. After cutting out the sink hole it is a little better but still substantial. However, like everything else on a small boat it is a compromise. To me its easy to clean and toughness (longivity) properties outweighs its weight problem. Here is a picture of the Morris 42 galley with Corian counter top. I am not too crazy about the Corian fiddle (maybe I am too old fashioned). The other point I want to bring up about Corian is that you can pretty much order it in any color since it is a synthetic material. Mine is off white which should look good with mahogany fiddles.
