New Floor Bearers In Day Boat

Lakesailor

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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)

Floorbearers02.jpg


Those next the centreboard case have been extended to provide stability to the case, which also has the mast tabernacle on the top.

Floorbearers01.jpg

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.


Floorbearers06.jpg



Floorbearers07.jpg
 
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oldsaltoz

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Well under-way by the looks of things. Have you considered installing pipes in the limber holes, usually held in place with a mix of epoxy resin and Micro-fibres? it's also very good under the timbers you have installed, particularly if you add a noce coving to make rounded section rather than a hard corner when glassing them in.

Keep the progress pictures comming.

Good luck and fair winds. :)
 

Lakesailor

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I did consider some pipe, but thought the radius would actually trap water between the floor and centreboard case. I have sealed the notches with epoxy resin and made them big enough to poke blockages free with a finger. I've had boats where a finger won't fit in.

I may run a radiused fillet of filler down the side of each bearer and smooth with my equivalent of a smoothing ball to allow the csm to turn up from the floor to the bearer better.
 
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