Starcraft Holiday - planked instead of plywood floor (sole)

[tinkertinker]

I finally got around to replacing the floor in my 1971 Holiday. I'm not doing a complete re-do yet.

As promised, I'm not using plywood, but wood planks. I chose cedar because I got some cheap, and it is rot-resistant. I don't care that it will get dents in it. This boat sits outside for now, and I have this amazing benefit: if a plank rots, it comes up with 4-6 screws and gets replaced!

I intentionally left a small gap between each board to let the air circulate.

First, I created stringers from aluminum angle. Each piece of angle was custom cut, with notches to fit the longitudinal stringers, and tapered at the end to meet the ribs properly. I think you'll be able to see the method from these pics.

Thanks to the folks here for inspiring me. More pics later.

I had intended to use 1in square aluminum, but was confused about how that might affect the sideboards and such, since it would elevate the floor one inch if I wanted them to sit in one piece, running port to starboard across the top of the two longitudinal stringers.

A word on aluminum... onlinemetals beat the pants off of any of my local suppliers on price.

 

[eball429]

Re: Starcraft Holiday - planked instead of plywood floor (sole)

More pictures! I'm considering doing the same thing and would like to see how it turns out. What type of cedar did you use?

 

[tinkertinker]

Re: Starcraft Holiday - planked instead of plywood floor (sole)

Oops, I guess I didn't subscribe to replies. Sorry, eball for the delay. I will get more pics.
I used cedar planks usually used for siding. I got a good deal on some long ones that had bends/cracks on the ends. I didn't treat the wood -- was planning on pulling each one up to sand and seal anyhow, and had a party to host.

The hardest part by far was building the aluminum subframe. LOTS of thinking and grinding and cutting aluminum angle. The rivets were easy.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the sides. I'm thinking of scrapping the whole side/plywood setup for an interior aluminum skin. dunno yet. Haven't ripped out the sheets on the inside of the gunwales yet.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Starcraft Holiday - planked instead of plywood floor (sole)

Are you putting any floatation foam under the deck?

 

[tinkertinker]

Re: Starcraft Holiday - planked instead of plywood floor (sole)

I might put a coupla pool noodles down there.
But reading about floatation, if the under-deck (under-sole) floatation is keeping the boat afloat, it is prolly upside down or totally swamped. Seems to me the best spots are where the floatation would keep the boat upright... under the gunwales, in the bow, and ideally somewhere in the stern where the weight is.
That said, the DEC fee for sinking a boat to the bottom is probably high.

The way i did this one, I can pop the appropriate boards up and lay whatever I put down there in. Though I'll probably think hard about tying the floatation in slightly off the skin of the hull. No reason to wet it every trip.