Which thickness of ply for cabin washboards ?

[[70521]]

Why does every body struggle with the stowage of a one piece washboard? Mine lives under my bunk.

I had a plywood washboard on my last boat, work of the Devil.

 

[Blueboatman]

High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
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Of particular concern are mineral fillers or additives that cause the overall blend to sink in water. The density of HDPE is .94-.96 so it floats in water. Density is an ...
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Thanks Coopec, interesting

 

[Quandary]

I have one piece of smoked acrylic/ polycarbonate about 3' square . It does the job well but is heavy and awkward to stow.

Ideally I would like to cut it into two or three pieces. I have phoned two companies that supply the material but cannot cut it unless it was purchased from them. Would an angled cut with a jigsaw work ok ?

Yes, not too steep an angle, as the edges could chip. 30 degrees better than 45. Clamp a clean straight lath firmly in place as a guide, use a fine tooth metal cutting blade and go slowly but do not stop in contact as heat builds up on the blade quickly. Once cut polish with wet and dry and slightly round the sharp edge to make it more comfortable to handle and reduce the risk of chipping. You will loose 1-2 mm. of height plus the difference between the thickness and the width of the groove.

 

[Quandary]

We have an acrylic washboard but rarely used when aboard, it spends its time behind the aft cabin door with a couple of newspapers folded over it to stop it rattling, crime on the west coast is negligible. The acrylic sliding hatch has a teak back rail which operates as the handle. It has three press studs screwed in to the top and we have a piece of neatly hemmed acrylic canvas which fixes to the studs, it is rolled down at night and rolled up in daytime, allows some useful ventilation and cutting out light. The only time we use the rigid washboard is if we are on a pontoon with our back to strong wind and rain.
Perhaps We are too optimistic but we rarely lock the boat up when going ashore, even when we are on a pontoon, one of the advantages of a yacht is that it is difficult for an intruder to establish whether there is anyone aboard before trying to climb aboard, of course if the boat is locked up tight he knows immediately. 45 years cruising out here and so far no problems. We did have a dinghy stolen once by a crew of he-haw henrys from PWC when at WHYW in Tob. but when our piano player went to recover it she accepted two bottles of gin as recompense for their 'mistake'.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Yes, not too steep an angle, as the edges could chip. 30 degrees better than 45. Clamp a clean straight lath firmly in place as a guide, use a fine tooth metal cutting blade and go slowly but do not stop in contact as heat builds up on the blade quickly. Once cut polish with wet and dry and slightly round the sharp edge to make it more comfortable to handle and reduce the risk of chipping. You will loose 1-2 mm. of height plus the difference between the thickness and the width of the groove.

That's really helpful .

Many Thanks.

 

[Channel Sailor]

I replaced my single piece Perspex one with a varnished two piece marine ply version instead. I think the ply was 12mm, just builders merchant quality marine ply. The Perspex one leaked, had a daft bottom lock arrangement which caused a raft of problems, a hassle to store anywhere, let too much light through, the ventilation grill on it did not let anywhere near enough air through it, could not be secured in a storm and I wanted to be able to put half of it in only (poor weather but need comm's between cabin and helm, also can step over the lower half of it if in bad weather. Each of the the plywood halves can be secured independently, either with a tight line to hold it in place or or with some slack in the line just so they cannot float away. I have two sets, so I can take home one set to varnish.

At the horizontal join between them, one set has a stepped cut the other set has a sloping cut between them. The sloping cut is better at keeping the wet damp out. The stepped cut unfortunately seemed to trap water along the step cut.

The bottom board has a couple of small guides on the inside lower surface that prevent the bottom edge sitting in a pool of wet. The top board has a large air vent with a decent wind/rain baffle over the top.

 

[Pirx]

Thank you everyone: all interesting & helpful.
Channel Sailor's comment speaks to my condition ( as the Quakers say ) so that's probably another winter job. The nice mauve perspex will do nicely for our winter lay up ashore.

 

[Stemar]

If your companionway is 3' square, I'd have thought that converting to doors might be a good option. Bifolds might be less intrusive than single doors on each side.