bigwow
Well-Known Member
Mine are held down with Dual Lock working well up to now.
What is the best way to hold floor-boards in place?
- Thread starter coopec
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coopec
N/A
I think I have some Dual Lock Velcro!! (A fair bit - I'll check in the morning!)
Thanks!
prv
Well-Known Member
For what it’s worth, mine are just screwed down, with a few small inspection hatches that aren’t positively secured but wouldn’t do much harm if they went flying. Not the most highly engineered solution, but perfectly adequate for a production boat with a dry, shallow bilge.
Pete
Pete
LittleSister
Well-Known Member
Gravity.
There are many interesting methods that don't depend on gravity, as others have attested above.
The advantage of using gravity to keep your floor-boards in place is that it will simultaneously, and without additional cost, also keep your drink in its glass or cup, and said receptacles on the table.
coopec
N/A
Gravity.
There are many interesting methods that don't depend on gravity, as others have attested above.
The advantage of using gravity to keep your floor-boards in place is that it will simultaneously, and without additional cost, also keep your drink in its glass or cup, and said receptacles on the table.
That won't work all the time and you might well lose all the contents of your glass if the yacht pitch-poles. (I use cling wrap over the top of my glass to avoid that possibility)
LittleSister
Well-Known Member
That won't work all the time and you might well lose all the contents of your glass if the yacht pitch-poles. (I use cling wrap over the top of my glass to avoid that possibility)
I was suggesting, tongue in cheek, that keeping a yacht the right way up was an advantageous way to keep the floorboards, and all else, in place.
coopec
N/A
I was suggesting, tongue in cheek, that keeping a yacht the right way up was an advantageous way to keep the floorboards, and all else, in place.
I'll try really hard to do that but.............?
Beneteau381
Well-Known Member
Why? Beneteau Jeanneau etc come with loose floorboards as std
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
Is that so that when they twist with the damp & squeak when you walk on them, they give that great impression of a working wooden yacht rather than an AWB
Or is it so that when storing the boat on the hard, they spring up, so that you can tell which end of the boat has flexed over the keel & can make suitable adjustments on the props to support the "saggy" bit
mikegunn
Well-Known Member
Stainless “blind” threaded inserts are also available. They’re very useful when one would want to prevent water migrating along a thread, such as when used to retain deck panels and hatches. As far as floorboards are concerned, like others here I just leave them loose.
On a previous boat I once had a water ingress problem and the bilge pump switch had failed. First indication was when the floorboards started floating! Certainly concentrates the mind. Definitely not a time to be faffing around with screwdrivers or hexagon keys. If I hadn’t been able to very quickly lift the boards I would probably have transferred my attention to the liferaft.
Mike
coopec
N/A
If that's the case I'd call them Coastal Cruisers which are designed for light weather and not Bluewater Yachts which are designed for rough seas.
How to survive a knock down
This is where you can make the difference; you should always ‘stow for sea’ but above that we can do the following:
- Floorboards. Boards on the cabin sole need to be able to be locked down with latches. Screwing them down is a faff, latches are best, if more expensive
- Cookers need to be able to............
dankilb
Well-Known Member
Or you could do what the PO of our boat did: Make a nice new set of floorboards. Run multiple (every 20cm or so) self tappers into the aluminium bearers, rounding off many of the screw heads in the process. Then several coats of varnish over the top.
Result = heat, an impact, or drilling required to get them out.
Can’t wait until I can throw the bloody lot in a skip and do it again properly! (Leaning towards rivnut inserts and hex head machine screws - keeping the correct size t-handle in the emergency tools draw)
Result = heat, an impact, or drilling required to get them out.
Can’t wait until I can throw the bloody lot in a skip and do it again properly! (Leaning towards rivnut inserts and hex head machine screws - keeping the correct size t-handle in the emergency tools draw)
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Beneteau381
Well-Known Member
Lots of AWB doe the Arc every year, I dont call that coastal cruising. My Beneteau took us safely across Biscay I dont call that coastal cruising either. Screwing down my floor boards wasnt high on my to do list.
Neeves
Well-Known Member
The comment has been made that whatever method is used needs to be simple as finding a Philips screwdriver in a panic might be difficult.
I have to wonder about it being difficult to find a Philips screwdriver - or whatever
Sorry for the thread drift but:
I solved the problem of having access to the essential kit by making a device like a kitchen knife block which holds the few critical items of kit, 2 knivee (one with shackle key), torch, a few Alan keys (the sizes commonly needed), mole wrench, 2 sizes of adjustable wrench, flat and star screw driver, It is fixed inside the cabin accessible from the wheel and from 'where washboards would be' if we had a mono. The real tool kits are under the upholstery. But for most work on deck - the knife rack 'thing' is the place to go.
On securing the floor boards - many of them will simply be voids - nothing inside them and for many they are unlikely to be critical as holing the hull at that point would be 'unlikely' or so calamitous you really don't want to know.. If yachts were designed cleverly there would be few critical floor boards, transducers, limited water inlets servicing a manifold, keel bolts - in which case you could invest more in the floor boards covering critical items and less if they are shallow or used for long term storage. I would want hull fittings, transducers and keel bolts easily accessible - I'd be happy to spend a few moments retrieving a bottle of whisky.
I really don't see why it would be 'one size fits all'.
Spend the money on critical areas and go for the cheap fix elsewhere.
Jonathan
I have to wonder about it being difficult to find a Philips screwdriver - or whatever
Sorry for the thread drift but:
I solved the problem of having access to the essential kit by making a device like a kitchen knife block which holds the few critical items of kit, 2 knivee (one with shackle key), torch, a few Alan keys (the sizes commonly needed), mole wrench, 2 sizes of adjustable wrench, flat and star screw driver, It is fixed inside the cabin accessible from the wheel and from 'where washboards would be' if we had a mono. The real tool kits are under the upholstery. But for most work on deck - the knife rack 'thing' is the place to go.
On securing the floor boards - many of them will simply be voids - nothing inside them and for many they are unlikely to be critical as holing the hull at that point would be 'unlikely' or so calamitous you really don't want to know.. If yachts were designed cleverly there would be few critical floor boards, transducers, limited water inlets servicing a manifold, keel bolts - in which case you could invest more in the floor boards covering critical items and less if they are shallow or used for long term storage. I would want hull fittings, transducers and keel bolts easily accessible - I'd be happy to spend a few moments retrieving a bottle of whisky.
I really don't see why it would be 'one size fits all'.
Spend the money on critical areas and go for the cheap fix elsewhere.
Jonathan
Poey50
Well-Known Member
Our floorboards are fairly close fitting so I've added a recessed spring finger pull handle to each of them just so I don't need to prise them up with the end of a knife. All I need to do to prep for offshore is to jam a softwood wedge into the gap at the end closest to the handle. The tapered end of a wooden clothes peg would do it. A sharp tug on the handle would pull them clear in a second. If wet the softwood expands to give a tighter fit.
Refueler
Well-Known Member
I am glad that I am not only one who has no fasteners to hold down cabin sole boards.
Correctly fitted with sufficient interference fit to 'hold' should be sufficient for any boat ....
To lift mine - I have to give quite a hard jerk tug to get started ... and I know they hold in extreme seas without any movement at all.
Previous boat had a loose centre teak board set into a gulley covering the pig iron in the centre keel ... nothing fastening that either ... even though it was 'loose' - it never walked or gave any cause for concern.
OK - its my own personal preference - but I hate things like this screwed down .. its an act that IMHO just adds complication in the event you need to get under it ...
Correctly fitted with sufficient interference fit to 'hold' should be sufficient for any boat ....
To lift mine - I have to give quite a hard jerk tug to get started ... and I know they hold in extreme seas without any movement at all.
Previous boat had a loose centre teak board set into a gulley covering the pig iron in the centre keel ... nothing fastening that either ... even though it was 'loose' - it never walked or gave any cause for concern.
OK - its my own personal preference - but I hate things like this screwed down .. its an act that IMHO just adds complication in the event you need to get under it ...
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
I had a fire on board my first wooden Stella en route from Ostend to Burnham . Petrol ignited, running along the top of a lot of water in the bilges (we had suffered serious damage earlier on & were leaking badly) The petrol ran from the main cabin , under the petrol Stuart Turner & under the cockpit, where several gallons of petrol was stored.
I was able to get the central flooboards up in a trice & fling them onto the bunks. If I had needed to look for screw drivers etc I would probably been following my crew, who were in the process of chucking the half inflated Avon over the side.
2 Chubb powder fire extinguishers, purchased shortly before the trip, just managed to solve the problem.
I was able to get the central flooboards up in a trice & fling them onto the bunks. If I had needed to look for screw drivers etc I would probably been following my crew, who were in the process of chucking the half inflated Avon over the side.
2 Chubb powder fire extinguishers, purchased shortly before the trip, just managed to solve the problem.
Stemar
Well-Known Member
No matter what safety precaution is suggested, there will always be a situation where having it will be more dangerous than not. It's a matter of risk assessment - which is more likely, an emergency need to get the sole up, or getting brained by a flying floorboard in a knockdown, and what's the likelihood of either event?
On my Catalac, I reckon the risk of flying floorboards is low - if they start flying around, I reckon my priority would be getting the hell out of Dodge, so I'm quite happy to rely on gravity to hold them in place. On a bluewater monohull or a sporty capsisible cat going offshore, my assessment would be different, and I'd like the boards to be held down. I would suggest that a sump with through hulls or transponders is vulnerable to sudden ingress of water than needs to be dealt with right now, so those expensive clips are probably worth the cost, the ones where edible and drinkable ballast is stored and have no holes in the GRP could be screwed down into the OP's inserts or similar, with a dedicated screwdriver living in a clip somewhere nearby, so it can be found when needed. I wouldn't screw them direct into wood or grp because regular removal and replacement means they'd get loose eventually.
On my Catalac, I reckon the risk of flying floorboards is low - if they start flying around, I reckon my priority would be getting the hell out of Dodge, so I'm quite happy to rely on gravity to hold them in place. On a bluewater monohull or a sporty capsisible cat going offshore, my assessment would be different, and I'd like the boards to be held down. I would suggest that a sump with through hulls or transponders is vulnerable to sudden ingress of water than needs to be dealt with right now, so those expensive clips are probably worth the cost, the ones where edible and drinkable ballast is stored and have no holes in the GRP could be screwed down into the OP's inserts or similar, with a dedicated screwdriver living in a clip somewhere nearby, so it can be found when needed. I wouldn't screw them direct into wood or grp because regular removal and replacement means they'd get loose eventually.
Laminar Flow
Well-Known Member
A while back I skippered a yacht in one of the transpacific races. The boat was fifty years old and had made numerous ocean crossings, including the Atlantic and the Pacific.
The race committee required that the floor boards be secured. In the boat's entire 50 year voyaging and racing history this hadn't ever been the case. We solved this by making up some latches that could be turned with a slotted screw driver and passed inspection. We never engaged them during the race nor on the return voyage during which we went through a couple of nasty storms.
My own previous boat, which I sailed extensively offshore, never had locking floor boars either and the likelihood of a rollover is, for what it's worth, in the same risk category as a keel dropping off. The risk of an inversion diminishes significantly with the size of boat and at 45' I should think it would be pretty much nil for any type of sensible cruising.
In view of the fact that most boats, especially modern ones with a shallow bilge, do not store much under the floor boards, it is quite beyond me why such fuss is made about them, while, on the other hand, the considerable contents stored under the mostly lose bunk boards are allowed to come free in an event, no matter how improbable.
On my current boat, an unashamedly coastal cruiser, I would never bother securing the floor boards, even if I were to take her offshore with the exception of the cockpit floor hatch. We have had lockers occasionally suffer from incontinence during rough passages, but never has a floor board even so much as budged.
As for not getting at something in a dire emergency: you are supposed to carry an axe on board to remove any furniture obstructing access to a damaged part of the hull.
The race committee required that the floor boards be secured. In the boat's entire 50 year voyaging and racing history this hadn't ever been the case. We solved this by making up some latches that could be turned with a slotted screw driver and passed inspection. We never engaged them during the race nor on the return voyage during which we went through a couple of nasty storms.
My own previous boat, which I sailed extensively offshore, never had locking floor boars either and the likelihood of a rollover is, for what it's worth, in the same risk category as a keel dropping off. The risk of an inversion diminishes significantly with the size of boat and at 45' I should think it would be pretty much nil for any type of sensible cruising.
In view of the fact that most boats, especially modern ones with a shallow bilge, do not store much under the floor boards, it is quite beyond me why such fuss is made about them, while, on the other hand, the considerable contents stored under the mostly lose bunk boards are allowed to come free in an event, no matter how improbable.
On my current boat, an unashamedly coastal cruiser, I would never bother securing the floor boards, even if I were to take her offshore with the exception of the cockpit floor hatch. We have had lockers occasionally suffer from incontinence during rough passages, but never has a floor board even so much as budged.
As for not getting at something in a dire emergency: you are supposed to carry an axe on board to remove any furniture obstructing access to a damaged part of the hull.
pvb
Well-Known Member
That's essentially what I said in post 18 - the chances are very slim.
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