Saving Old Seagulls

my dinghy has got 5 slats,but I was gonna buy plywood and cut it to size and make a solid floor..is this feasible..just want something that is a fairly solid floor.

Does it need to flex? Maybe you need a RIB.

Hugz wrote:Does it need to flex? Maybe you need a RIB.

last time I went to my doctor he never mentioned it

Yep its perfectly feasable, in boaty terms it would be called a 'sole'. My Wayfarer has one, as do a lot of (older) boats. But the so-called 'marine-ply you find down the average timber-yard isn't worth a damn on a boat. Is it a nice boat?

well its only a 2/3 man dinghy u say a sole where do u get it

fleetingcontact wrote:Yep its perfectly feasable, in boaty terms it would be called a 'sole'. My Wayfarer has one, as do a lot of (older) boats. But the so-called 'marine-ply you find down the average timber-yard isn't worth a damn on a boat. Is it a nice boat?

looked on ebay but all I get is shoe soles

Is it a nice boat or a knockabout of limited value? And what sort of boat is it? Eg dinghy, rib, etc.

its only a waveco dinghy I use as a tender

The first time I saw this in action, an old friend of mine had the same idea for his Inflatable. After 'sea trials' he found it rather unyielding, so had an idea. He took the piece of Marine Ply back out, sawed five times across it, then glued old Inner Tube between the gaps. When he replaced it, he found it to be rigid enough, but still had a certain amount of 'flex' when crossing wakes and the like. Worth thinking about, I suppose.....

Interesting idea, like it for a rib. The boat in question is probably not highly valued though, not if it is similar to other people's tenders I have seen.

So...

Make cardboard templates and cut the ply with a jigsaw, worth getting the right blade, the wrong one will result in lots of splinters.

Marine ply for the material as found in average timber merchant treated (perhaps) with the cheap kind of primer found in the local diy store, preferably oil-based (getting less common but still available). I'd go for 3 coats, diluting the first with white spirit a lot, the a second 50-50, then neat. It would last for a bit. Paint the edges well.

But the biggest issue would be supports. It likely doesn't have anything built into the boat to accomodate. If you put weight on them and they connect with the skin of the boat, why bother? Also it would be nice to have a method of fixing them down in the event of a capsize or the thing is otherwise swamped.

The older Wayfarers use a simple turnbuckle but I knew one guy who just screwed them down with self-tappers...but his boat was / is a worthless shed.

was looking at camping mats today...meh...think al give up that idea...they do make floors for sale on the web,but a £200 floor,for a£400 dinghy, I think not.

fleetingcontact wrote:Interesting idea, like it for a rib. The boat in question is probably not highly valued though, not if it is similar to other people's tenders I have seen.

So...

Make cardboard templates and cut the ply with a jigsaw, worth getting the right blade, the wrong one will result in lots of splinters.

Marine ply for the material as found in average timber merchant treated (perhaps) with the cheap kind of primer found in the local diy store, preferably oil-based (getting less common but still available). I'd go for 3 coats, diluting the first with white spirit a lot, the a second 50-50, then neat. It would last for a bit. Paint the edges well.

But the biggest issue would be supports. It likely doesn't have anything built into the boat to accomodate. If you put weight on them and they connect with the skin of the boat, why bother? Also it would be nice to have a method of fixing them down in the event of a capsize or the thing is otherwise swamped.

The older Wayfarers use a simple turnbuckle but I knew one guy who just screwed them down with self-tappers...but his boat was / is a worthless shed.

To much work for me

I would be worried about chaffing with all the movement.

Just wear snow shoes