Anyone made replacement slats for a Honwave T25 dinghy?

[Sgeir]

Or had them made?

I have come to the conclusion that the plywood slats sold by Honda with their Honwave T25 dinghies are simply not fit for purpose.

The first lot were replaced by the Honwave agent, but now three of the five replacement slats are broken, one of them in three places. I really cannot be bothered about having to go back to Honda every two or years to have them replaced by another set of crappy ply slats. The problem is that they are not good in a wet environment. Having a cutter rig with a liferaft fitted on deck, there is no room on our deck to carry our 2.5m dinghy upside down when fully or partially inflated. Our choices are either to tow it or to roll it up and stow it on deck, which in our sailing area often means that it gathers rainwater or is rolled up and stowed while still wet.

So, has anyone made new slats, and, if so, using what material?

 

[TernVI]

Our Bombard had narrower ply slats which suffered a similar fate.
We just do without them.
If I wanted a floor, I'd probably look at grp foam sandwich.

 

[Sgeir]

Good suggestion, but a solid GRP floor for a 2.5m dinghy would be difficult for us to stow, which is why I'd like to try better materials for slats.

 

[Ceejay]

I replaced a similar slat on my Avon four years ago with a laminate flooring board cut to size with the corners and ends rounded off to prevent chafe. So far so good.

 

[[70521]]

Same thing happened to my dingy. I'm looking to replace with a plastic material. Why anybody thought that plywood was the material of choice is beyond me.

 

[NormanS]

I cannot imagine why dinghy makers specify plywood for these slats. Plywood is weak in this situation. I replaced mine with ordinary thin wooden boards.

 

[catlotion]

Had same issue on my zodiac cadet and used window uPVC window trim to repair and reinforce with epoxy glue. Worked really well. This stuff:

WHITE/COLOURED UPVC 2.5m TRIM 25mm/30mm/45mm/65mm/95mm COILED AND WRAPPED | eBay

 

[James_Calvert]

I used wooden slats from a redundant futon base. Much stronger than a previous attempt with cheap plywood.