Deck Questions

[CraigV]

hi all, another year and a campervan build later i am back refitting an old shetland 535. i am looking for some advice about the deck. the set up on this boat was that the deck was comprised of two bits of 18mm ply which was carpeted. I ripped out the carpet but i have retained the ply as they are in tip top nick. I am thinking of adding rubber garage floor matting (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184032023465 ... R-q-p_KSZA) that i installed in my camper. thing is I am not sure if I seal the edges to the sides of the boat or do i leave gaps for water to drain into the bilge?

What would you all recommend? maybe you guys could post of photos of your deck setup? any advice would be appreciated.

[vreagh]

I used this imitation laid deck from Ebay on my 535. It's self adhesive so note the drains in the rear corners to rid of surface water.

[dconnx]

I just got the idea to get 8x4 marine ply, cut it to fit and then use a router to cut lines like I imagined a teak deck to look like. Then I bought a box of sharpie black markers and gave them to my wife and gave her the great job of filling in the lines . After that I painted varnish on the plywood.

Derek

[blebrocq]

Certainly looks the part - well done I like a bit of sideways thinking !
Bob

[CraigV]

Hi all, sorry for the gap in replying been really busy on the boat as of late and have a few more head scratching problems, but thats for another thread!

vreagh.. thanks for your reply, since intially posting my question I have found some teak deck looking eva foam on that Temu site which looks good and I can lay it in two strips. I like your drain plug idea and looks ideal for my needs.

dconnx.. thanks for your reply also.. what a great idea!! and looks amazing too. how do the edges feel?

Craig.

[CraigV]

vreagh... as I just said there I have more questions and looking at one of your photos has givin me the amswer so thank you!! I was looking for some advice about how to fix hinges to the cabin door.. I see your door hinges are pop riveted, ideal solution. Thanks again.. Paint issue thread now.

[dconnx]

I've since replaced those little hinges with bigger more robust hinges. We've been using our Family Four in the sea and the doors really tend to get bashed about a bit (as do we do) if there are bigger waves. (Having said that I can't say enough about how capable the family four is in the sea - I think it's better than a bigger 24 foot boat we have that has an inboard engine and the fact that the Family Four is filled with foam is probably an amazing safety feature).

Those smaller hinges never ever failed on the pop rivets though - the hinges came apart (into 2 pieces with the centre bar disappearing somewhere).

On our Family Four all the fender mounts were pop riveted (which I thought looked original but not sure) - so that made me feel like it's a good solution and it was fine.

Derek

[dconnx]

dconnx.. thanks for your reply also.. what a great idea!! and looks amazing too. how do the edges feel?

The plywood floor is still doing a fine job and has weathered well as plywood seems to do. I was initially worried about it being slippy when wet and I bought some stuff to mix with epoxy or varnish that is grippy (maybe just expensive sand!). But I never used it and I never found the floor to be slippy. I did sand everything before a few coats of some kind of "yacht varnish" from the local hardware store and that's all I did.

Derek

[tumblerfox]

Seeing what others have done with their decks is super helpful. I second what vreagh mentioned about having proper drainage points, learned that lesson the hard way!