Securing cabin sole

[choppy]

Greetings all,
Cabin sole was secured with 4Mml screws through stainless countersunk sleeves in the teak & holly style boards - Its an Elan -
The screws then screwed direct into GRP ribs.
Over the years these have lost their bite in most places along with crazing & cracks (minor and surface by the looks)

My planned fix was to sink female barrel bolts into the ribs then A4 countersunk bolts through existing sleeves into the bolts
The barrel bolts i planned to CT1 in place so that I had a bit of movement to align then epoxy when all good

Or So I thought.

The ribs are box section and 3-4Mml so the drill is straight through & the bolts pretty easily drops through - I have placed a few with CT1 and fastened OK & the epoxy works ok as well.
Hit rate is 2 in 3 as far as lining up (Using marksman )
With 35 more to complete its a saga -

Any other solutions or ideas would like to have this finished in March & have been at it 2 weeks + !

 

[Caer Urfa]

You should never seal all the sole boards down, what happens if you need to get into the bilges below quickly?

 

[geem]

You should never seal all the sole boards down, what happens if you need to get into the bilges below quickly?

You unscrew them?

 

[KompetentKrew]

My sole is secured with this kind of brass latch: Force 4 Cupboard Catch | Force 4 Chandlery

Requires finger-sized holes in the sole to unlatch them, but the sole can be lifted very quickly.

 

[dankilb]

Could be worse… previous owner wood screwed ours down prolifically, completely rounded out all the pozi heads in doing so, then liberally varnished on top. ‘Security’ sole boards anyone?!

 

[Neeves]

To me accessing the bilges is a much more, infinitely more, likely scenario than the need to worry about floor boards flying about. However the chance you need to access the bilges in a panic is very uncommon (except when you remove or replace the log). I don't think there is a one perfect solution for all floor boards. If the bilges interconnect then you really only need to access the floor board over the deepest part of the bilges, which is probably the floor board over the keel bolts. (and the one for the log).


Seriously

I'd be interested to learn how many have had to lift floor boards in a panic and did not have time to undo 4 screws. and or could not find the relevant tool (screw driver).

I'd also be interested in the number of people who were sailing and the conditions were such they feared of flying floor boards.


Interscrews aka, sex bolts, Chicago bolts, barrel bolts come in all shapes and sizes - some can be opened with a knife, fancy Allan key or Philips head screwdriver, they can be made in stainless or non ferrous metals and you could arrange that they simple need a single rotation to release. You can chop the ends off, both the barrel and the male portion to suit the application. If you choose with care the heads can be interestingly decorative and the barrel can come up through the floor board which would make installation - easy.

Drill appropriate holes in floor board. Dab of epoxy on Blige (in appropriate places) drop floor board down so that the female portion can be pushed onto epoxy. Leave to cure . Mark where floor board clears barrel, remove floor board, chop off excess (angle grinder, Dremel), replace floor board and screw down with male portion. You may need to refresh the thread where you chop off. You may need, or want, to beef up epoxy.

The type, bottom centre, with the semi rectangular flange on the barrel might be neatly installed, with epoxy, without the need to drill any holes. You would need to align correctly - but if you own a yacht - you do need to be multi-talented



Jonathan

 

[geem]

I don't make a habit of securing my sole boards apart form the ones we don't need regular access to that squeak when we walk on them. We have lots of space under the floor for storage so we often lift them. Screwing them all down would be seriously inconvenient

 

[Neeves]

None of our floor boards are retained - but then if we were inverted, catamaran, the floor boards would be the least of our worries.

Like Geem - we have space under our floor boards for storage, unlike many modern monohulls where the space under the cabin sole is minimalistic.

Jonathan

 

[coopec]

https://pyiinc.com/img/OEM%20Floor%20Anchor%20Details.jpg

dankilib secure bolt boat floor - Google Search

FLOOR ANCHORS | Floor Panel Fastener

I'm planning to use something like this (Real Heavy Duty)

25mm 50mm 100mm 150 Heavy Duty Adhesive Sticky Back Hook Loop Tape Black White D | eBay

 

[coopec]

dzus® quarter-turn fasteners: Search Result | eBay

DZUS Quarter Turn Fasteners

 

[Stemar]

Requires finger-sized holes in the sole to unlatch them, but the sole can be lifted very quickly.

So you can retrieve all the little bits and bobs that go hide down the holes...

I think that if I were to lock my sloe boards down, I'd use something like this

But, on Jazzcat, if the boards are coming out of their places, they'll be the very least of my worries!

 

[choppy]

Thanks to all
Yes I do have access to the various sections of bilge via non fastened panels - the previously screwed boards im dealing with surround the table and forward.
The Dankilib (Seaview)& Dzus offer something id not seen would involve removing the existing sleeves in board would be destructive but fits thanks
Ill plug on 1 hole at a time when 2 / board are correctly positioned it gets a little easier

 

[Mister E]

For the voids you could use Rivnuts or Spirenuts.

 

[Graham_Wright]

You unscrew them?

35?!

 

[dankilb]

One thing I could commend is our Jeanneau’s method of mounting the boards:

There are lengths of aluminium flat bar running longitudinally, fixed to the structural floors, to which the sole boards are screwed. This does make fastener selection and insertion very easy (apart from for aforementioned PO!).

At one end of the spectrum, self tappers would be fine. At the other end, a captive nut could be used to accept a bolt/screw.

Of course, the price of metal stock now might make a retrofit like this very uneconomical.

 

[geem]

One thing I could commend is our Jeanneau’s method of mounting the boards:

There are lengths of aluminium flat bar running longitudinally, fixed to the structural floors, to which the sole boards are screwed. This does make fastener selection and insertion very easy (apart from for aforementioned PO!).

At one end of the spectrum, self tappers would be fine. At the other end, a captive nut could be used to accept a bolt/screw.

Of course, the price of metal stock now might make a retrofit like this very uneconomical.

My floorboards all sit on joists running across the width of the boat. We have brass inserts epoxied in to the joists and countersunk stainless bolts with Allen key heads holding the board's down. Very neat and strong. We just don't often fix them down. The board's in the galley use piano hinge so we can hinge the boards up. Springs hold the board's in the up position. The galley bilge is separate from other bilge spaces so makes great storage for tins and jars. It's also huge. About a foot deep at its deepest and 7 foot long.

 

[coopec]

Two years ago (?) there was a thread on this very same subject either on YBW or Cruiser Forum.

I was looking at all sorts of devices until this guy said he was using adhesive backed "Hook and Loop" tape (Velcro). He explained it wasn't the normal light weight but Heavy Duty (Industrial?) hook and loop.

I bought some on eBay at the time and I will be using it in the next few days.

I have X6 floor panels in the main saloon so none are particularly heavy. One end of each panel is trapped under the bulkhead "sheathing" and I have ring-pulls on the other end. I'm going use the tape but my concern is that I will use too much and make it difficult to raise the floor if I need to.

 

[geem]

Two years ago (?) there was a thread on this very same subject either on YBW or Cruiser Forum.

I was looking at all sorts of devices until this guy said he was using adhesive backed "Hook and Loop" tape (Velcro). He explained it wasn't the normal light weight but Heavy Duty (Industrial?) hook and loop.

I bought some on eBay at the time and I will be using it in the next few days.

I have X6 floor panels in the main saloon so none are particularly heavy. One end of each panel is trapped under the bulkhead "sheathing" and I have ring-pulls on the other end. I'm going use the tape but my concern is that I will use too much and make it difficult to raise the floor if I need to.

We use industrial velcro to keep our ply backed saloon backrests in place. Just use short lengths of the velcro to fix your floors. You only need enough to keep them in place.