In my '77 43DC I believe that I have Afromosia, but no one a I have spoken to, including Hatteras and Sam's, can give me a timeframe for the changeover. My boat has both quartersawn veneer, which produces the long straight grain, and flatsawn, which produces the chevron grain. Some walls have both, which causes me to stop and ask, were they even paying attention when they put it together, or did they just grab the next piece in the rack. Obviously, the latter.
There are a handful of places in Ft.Lauderdale where one can get veneers, including Afromosia at reasonable prices. All that I have seen are quartersawn. I have bought several sheets and I can tell you that it is not a good match (grain wise) for the quartersawn veneer in my boat, much less the flatsawn. Getting the stain right is the most important and the most difficult. I have tried all kinds of combinations and don't have a satisfactory (to my eye) solution.
I also had water stains around my salon windows and outright rot below the portlights in the master cabin. My solution was to completely replace the side and rear walls of the master cabin, and to cover the windowed walls in the salon with a cream colored upholstery material. It lightens the room up and doesn't give it quite so much of a mausoleum look. I am pleased with the way it looks and have gotten a lot of compliments on it.
For the most part, this is all behind me now, but I still give it a lot of thought, and I think that if I were going to do it again, I would have the veneer applied to a pressed paper backing similar to Formica and others, and would then have it prefinished. Then I would just cut to size with a razor knife, like Formica, and then glue it to the existing wall. Add trim and you're done.
