Boat Floor Replacement

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Boat Floor Replacement

1969 18ft. Silverline BelAir runabout

After a recent boating trip I decided to find out why the seats were all loose. After removing the seats (they practically pulled right out), I thought this would be a good time to replace the vinyl floor covering.

Upon seeing the condition of the plywood flooring, I realized that my 30 year old boat had developed a case of dry rot! The telltale dark spots and "spongyness" were a dead giveaway.

I then stripped all the side panels, gas tank, battery, etc, and got out the 4" grinder and set to work.

This is what I found after I pried the floor panels out! ------------------------------

Stringer Repair

As you can Imagine, some of the floor stringer had developed dry rot also. I treated the minor spots with a great product called "Git Rot", and glassed in 2 new stringers altogether.

New Plywood

Luckily, the old plywood came out in good enough shape to use for a pattern. Here are the new floorboards.

The next step was to screw the panels to the stringers. I used galvanized deck screws for this.

Now we are ready for the fun part, Fiberglassing!

Here you see I glassed some heavy fiberglass cloth (I think it was called #12) all around the perimeter of the plywood.

Then after that was done, I covered the whole floor with fiberglass mat. and glassed that in.

Sorry, but I didn't get a picture of this step!

Now, after a little sanding to get rid of some high spots, I was ready to apply the new floor covering.

I selected a vinyl made by Nautolex. Some people like carpet and while this is fine for some, I like the vinyl because if you get fish blood and guts , spilled beer, or anything else gross on it, you can just hose it off, plus it lasts longer!

Here is a 40lb salmon that we caught 11/10/01 while fishing on "willie the whaler" at the duxbury reef.

Here we are with the flooring in, and the seats installed, almost ready for boating!

But there was one more thing I wanted to add. As storage is a valuable commodity on any boat, I wanted a storage compartment up in the bow area, which was previously empty. It was always a sore spot with us, because everything you kept up there would always shift around while we were underway.So I made a two-sided "box" out of some 1/2" plywood, put a door with some hinges in it, covered it in the flooring vinyl, screwed it to the floor, and VIOLA, STORAGE!

Now this is the new home for the anchor, and the ice chest sit's on top of it, secured by bungees.

A day on the water with your kids makes it all worth it!

Here is my first Sturgeon! A 60 inch, 40 pounder caught in the south bay between the rr bridge and marker 16. On grass shrimp.

Back on the water! To "top it off", I ordered a bimini top from my brothers company, Johnson Bimini. (shameless self promotion)