Thanks guys (and that includes you Rachel) for the tips.
I had gone to Home Depot earlier and was told that they had stopped carrying sheet countertop laminates. Some about handling, breakage and not worth the return.
I'm going to try and run some of those ideas down. Tim's given me some brand names and that is the start that I was looking for. Jim, I've bookmarked that website you linked to.
Now, to the important stuff. Those cute little palm trees and margarita glasses are courtesy of my wife. She got very tired of looking at that cheap plywood backing while I was trying to figure out what to do. So she decided to decorate. And that was 2 years ago.
As is often said, "there is nothing so permanent as a temporary fix..."
Also, I see I broke the link to the earlier pictures (sorry Tim) so I've fixed those but I've just included a URL for the time being. Some other shots of the boat and whatnot. I put it together last night so don't expect much.
As I work on the boat I'll update the forum and the site.
Best,
Dave
http://web.mac.com/ronin37/iWeb/Ronin%2 ... 0Rest.html