Question regarding carpet in salon of f-32

[obeejr]

I want to replace the carpet in the salon of my 1990 f32. No lower station. The carpet I have now has both a cutout for the hatch in the middle of the salon, and slits along the openings to the engine hatches so they can be lifted without removing the carpet.

I have seen other boats with salon carpet that only had a cutout for the center hatch- you have to roll back the carpet to access the engine hatches. I was thinking of installing the new carpet this way, since it looks much neater. However, the carpet I have now is rolled over the molding at the top of the stairway to the forward area, and stapled there. It doesn't look like the carpet will roll back far enough to clear the starboard engine hatch without unstapling the rolled area at the top of the stairs.

It looks like if I install the carpet without cuts for the engine hatches, I might be able to "sneak" the starboard engine hatch open by pushing up a bulge in the carpet to clear the front inside corner of the hatch cover. Can anyone confirm this, or suggest a better way to do the install? Also, do others have padding installed, or is the carpet applied directly to the sole?

Ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.

[rossjo]

I used Blue/Black In/Out-door carpet from Lowes. It has "grooves" in it going 1 direction.. I made a template and then installed the carpet to fit the salon, and slit the engine hatches and 2 center hatches out, so each can open independetly. Carpet tape was weak, so I use stainless staples in the grooves to hold it - but glue would work just as well, especially if your carpet design didn't have the grooves to hide the staples. It is VERY difficult to see the seams, and looks great!

I spilled some while Polyurethane on one section, and just pulled it up and used it as a trempate for a replacements - took 15 minutes !

I also replaced (to match) the galley carpets, steps, and stateroom triangular carpet. I even even put down a matching 3x5 carpet on my dock to wipe your feet on!

When I bought the boat, it had a 1-piece saolon carpet - what a pain!

Fished yesterday - 8 dolphin (2 largest were about 30# ea), 2 Kings (1 30#er, and a 45# Wahoo - nice day on the pond!