The carpet liner helps deaden the sound of wash lapping at the side of your yacht when sleeping.
The only problem with the carpet is that it can get mouldy when the boat is closed up for long periods.
I am using a composite aluminium/plastic sheeting for fitting out of a Tugboat.
It is available though a Mister Ply and Wood outlet or similar and moulds nicely to curves etc. The aluminium is usually in a brilliant white finish and can be obtained in marine grade ally.
The similar board that the signwriters use may suffer from the salt over the long term.

Cheers C.R.

I am partway through removing the carpet liner on my spacesailer, mainly to get access to leaking deck fittings and its the original carpet and well past its best.

I have scraped off the majority of the hard glue and then 120 wet and dry to get a smoothish finish. Acetone seems to help lift some of the more stubborn glue patches. I am not sure of the interaction if any between the acetone and the Fibreglass so I didn't use it much.

Painted over with two coats. Looks better and brighter than the old carpet but not a mirror finish. More time spent on the wet and dry would get a better finish, but then the glass layup is not flat anyway.

I havent had any issues with the glue, I have hit it with 80 grit and she comes off no worries.

Personally I would like to leave the carpet liner off as it just accumulates dust and gets dirty so i guess my main question was is it something that I really need?

Its not on the roof but along the sides of the berths. I was going to use a fabric called wonderwall from spotlight which has been talked about a fair bit on trailersailerplace and i have used it before.

Sometimes at work I get tunnel vision. It passes with fresh air. :-)