Avon Rover R2.80 dinghy ply floorboards

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Top2donkey

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Morning All

When we bought our yacht in January, it came with a fairly old Avon Rover R2.80 dinghy in the sail locker, but no floorboards to be seen anywhere. I contacted the previous owner and he said there were never any floorboards with it, and as its quite an old dinghy, I thought i would make my own out of varnished marine ply. Trouble is, i don't know what size they would have been, I can measure up and make a best guess estimate, but wondered if anyone on here has one and could measure up the floorboards for me ?

Thanks

PS, I've tried to attach a picture of the dinghy, but YBW keeps saying 'we ran into some problems' and wont upload from my computer or google drive image archive :(
 
Top2donkey said:
Morning All

When we bought our yacht in January, it came with a fairly old Avon Rover R2.80 dinghy in the sail locker, but no floorboards to be seen anywhere.

PS, I've tried to attach a picture of the dinghy, but YBW keeps saying 'we ran into some problems' and wont upload from my computer or google drive image archive :(
Click to expand...

I expect your picture is too big.......... I reduce the size using "paint" when necessary but its trial and error to get the size right

I dont know if this picture ( from an old Avon brochure) is any help

Rover dinghy.jpg
 
You might think about simpler, lighter boards if you regularly take the boat apart to stow onboard. I made a set, hinged along their length with fabric, and much shorter than the o/a length of the dinghy; they stow nicely in a quarter berth with the dinghy on top. 1/4in ply, I think.
Can't post the photo, "We ran into problems" ?

A chum made c9in slats joined with webbing and they worked very well and are even easier to stow.

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Thank you everyone for your replies.

The picture you show is exactly what it looks like, and i hadn't considered making shorter boards, that would make sense.

I take it home after motoring out to our boat, its a mile from the slip, so don't want to row (its in Weymouth harbour at Castle Cove Sailing Club), I keep the dinghy in the sail locker when we are aboard, and i transport it home in the boot of our car, so have to inflate and deflate it a lot. I like the idea of fabric hinges, so will get measuring and make a card template, then do some cutting and fabric gluing !, and will report back with pictures in a week or so's time.

Cheers
 
We have an Achilles as our emergency No 2 but same problem so some hints.

In the picture you will see aluminium batten along the side of the floor boards next to the tubes and also going across the boards from side to side . These hold the whole thing in place so you probably need to source these first or think up an alternative solution to stop the boards sliding around and it will also give you the width of the plywood needed
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We have made up new boards out of what they call marine ply here but once you get water in the end grain they rot nicely, the next lot I will try epoxy covering

I asked Achilles how much for a new set of boards and it was about £500, more than I paid for the dinghy
Good luck
 
The Redstart uses a plastic foldable envelope setup ... the ply boards are 6mm and 4 pieces. Each piece is same length / width to fit each pocket of the plastic ...

Length of ply is such that when dinghy is softly inflated - the ends can slip under the seam strip where floor joins tubes.

Avon floor.jpg

Basically the front V section stays without as usually its where bags / gear goes and the slats provide a floor to stand on without the fabric floor making you fall about !! BUT it is only strong enough when boat is in water or fully supported

Easy to make ....
 
When the folding slats finally rotted and gave way - I saved the plastic 'envelope' and that's going to have new slats one day.

The previous owner of the Avon had created a really solid floor in two parts ... 10mm ply (talk about heavy !!) that fits the Avon for near all floor. Its in two sections - with holes for the seat toggles. The joint is directly under the inflatable seat. It creates a rigid dinghy - but then its so heavy - you cannot lift and carry so easy ... in fact I don't because I don't think the side grab lines will take it. But it makes it a rigid safe boat.
 
Managed to load the snaps by Editing them down in size in Paint and re-saving as JPG's

This was for a Redcrest but works at a pinch in my Rover:




DSCnewF0002.jpg

DSCnewSmallF0001.jpg

The fabric hinge means they can stand being well over 180 deg when you stand on them.

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Top2donkey said:
Thank you everyone for your replies.

The picture you show is exactly what it looks like, and i hadn't considered making shorter boards, that would make sense.

I take it home after motoring out to our boat, its a mile from the slip, so don't want to row (its in Weymouth harbour at Castle Cove Sailing Club), I keep the dinghy in the sail locker when we are aboard, and i transport it home in the boot of our car, so have to inflate and deflate it a lot. I like the idea of fabric hinges, so will get measuring and make a card template, then do some cutting and fabric gluing !, and will report back with pictures in a week or so's time.

Cheers
Click to expand...
I have heard of people using Ikea bed slats for this purpose - very cheap and you can roll them up for transport. Maybe worth a google!
 
This is a sketch of the boards created for my Avon Redstart :

he9XpI9.png


The blue is the 10mm plywood floor
 
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