I just pulled the old carpet out---that was the easy part. Next, I used a, razor blade, scraper and cleaned 95% of the old adhesive and carpet backing off. I used acetone to remove the last 5% of the adhesive.
The gel coat, under the carpet, is as pretty as the exposed gel coat on the boat---made me want to leave the new carpet off.
I used exterior, latex, carpet adhesive for all the deck carpet but had to use 3M Trim Adhesive for the lids since getting the edges to stick was problematic.
Major PITA but worth every moment.
froggy