Lakesailor
New member
After my last enquiry about thoughts on fitting some floor bearers in my Dockrell 17 day boat I have decided to go traditional with ply beams glassed in place. I cut some 18mm hardwood ply to shape. (the extra price for marine ply isn't justified as the boat will be dry sailed and covered when ashore.
These are the bits cut to size. The alloy tube is a boom from something or other which is dead true so I use it to get the bearers levelled in-line along the boat. I chose the height of the floor to give a decent width across the beam, remembering the side benches will protrude 14" into the boat)
(The original floor was at the level of the flange on the centreboard case. It was a self draining design so the height had to be above the water level. These were troublesome so I am going back to a conventional design. Which is safer whilst using the boat)
Those next the centreboard case have been extended to provide stability to the case, which also has the mast tabernacle on the top.
The block ahead of the centreboard is ballast It seems to be resin with lead shot. I'm going to have to glass in some retainers around it as although it is bonded to the hull, the newly exposed sides (I took off the old and rotten ply) are are giving-up their hoard of lead shot.
This is the first one I've bonded in place. It has a piece of redwood bonded and screwed with brass screws to the edge at the top, as the floor panels will meet on this bearer, so I wanted extra width. The wood is epoxy coated and bedded into GRP filler paste. When I've got them all in I will glass over them with a couple of layers of csm.
These are the bits cut to size. The alloy tube is a boom from something or other which is dead true so I use it to get the bearers levelled in-line along the boat. I chose the height of the floor to give a decent width across the beam, remembering the side benches will protrude 14" into the boat)
(The original floor was at the level of the flange on the centreboard case. It was a self draining design so the height had to be above the water level. These were troublesome so I am going back to a conventional design. Which is safer whilst using the boat)
Those next the centreboard case have been extended to provide stability to the case, which also has the mast tabernacle on the top.
The block ahead of the centreboard is ballast It seems to be resin with lead shot. I'm going to have to glass in some retainers around it as although it is bonded to the hull, the newly exposed sides (I took off the old and rotten ply) are are giving-up their hoard of lead shot.
This is the first one I've bonded in place. It has a piece of redwood bonded and screwed with brass screws to the edge at the top, as the floor panels will meet on this bearer, so I wanted extra width. The wood is epoxy coated and bedded into GRP filler paste. When I've got them all in I will glass over them with a couple of layers of csm.
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