Sunday, August 22, 2010

Boat Floor

This year has not been good for the boat. At the end of last year I somehow managed to wrap the steel anchor chain around the boat prop (don't ask) and damaged it beyond repair (it was aluminum). This year, as I was preparing the boat for the arrival of a new stainless steel prop, I noticed that the floor above the fuel tank was sagging and making cracking sounds when I would walk around inside the boat. That is never good news and is usually very "expensive" news. I was really depressed for about a month and then figured "what the heck" and started to rip out the old carpet over the floor to see what was going on. Bayliner (AKA cheap-assed boat builder) used plywood for the flooring and only covered it with a very thin layer of fiberglass. It was so thin that any bit of water absorbed by the carpet would eventually work its way into the wood and rot it. That is what happened to my boat. I decided to do two things. First, I would replace all the rotted plywood, and secondly I would get rid of the carpet in the boat and replace it with roll-on truck bed liner. The truck liner will provide a rough surface to prevent slips and will not absorb and hold water like the carpeting did. The carpet always seemed to be damp and I am sure that is what caused the wood underneath to rot out.

Here are some pictures of the floor as I work on it. The first picture shows the corner of the ski locker that I replaced and fiberglassed into place with epoxy resin. The second shot is an overall shot of the gaping hole in the boat over the gas tank. I'll try to post some more updates as I work on it.



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