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New Cockpit Floor....
Looking good...
Hopefully, you're sealing the fir-ply floor on both sides and especially along all edges before fastening the panels down to the stringers...(?) To seal the wood and help prevent future rot or delamination, we're recommend any one of the following: Smith's Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer; System Three Clearcoat, or the simple-to-use one-part product, Mar-X-ite, which we slather on a lot of bare wood as a sealer. (I'm not sure where you'll find Mar-X-ite in your local area. We get it at Admiral Ship Supply in Port Townsend; you could probably order it directly from Fisheries Supply in Seattle...www.fisheriessupply.com)
Is your fir ply half-inch in thickness, or thicker? Besides taping all of the seams and edges with 3' to 4-inch-wide fiberglass tape soaked in resin (probably two layers of tape, for strength), I'd consider covering the whole floor with overlapping panels of 6-ounce fiberglass cloth. If you want to avoid the cost of a lot of resin and cloth, you could just seal the heck out of the floor surface after taping the edges, and apply two coats of Interlux Deck Kote (or whatever they call the one-part paint with built-in nonskid grit). It comes in various colors, but the light gray works best in terms of hiding muddy footprints and general grime.
The recommendation to maybe cover the floor with fiberglass cloth is made with a lot of hesitation. It can strengthen the floor a bit and keep some water away from the ply, but after running the boat for awhile you're liable to develop stress cracks along edges or seams of the plywood. If you then allow any water to stand inside the cockpit, it'll seep down into the plywood, get trapped and cause rot faster than if you'd never covered the wood with cloth. (I just finished demolishing the entire cockpit area of a sailboat that had 6-oz. glass cloth over a lot of fir ply--rot everywhere--so I'm not feeling warm-and-fuzzy about cloth over fir plywood. Much better to use marine-mahogany ply in the 1088 Grade, since it'll last far longer than any of the fir plywoods.)
- Marty
Looking good...
Hopefully, you're sealing the fir-ply floor on both sides and especially along all edges before fastening the panels down to the stringers...(?) To seal the wood and help prevent future rot or delamination, we're recommend any one of the following: Smith's Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer; System Three Clearcoat, or the simple-to-use one-part product, Mar-X-ite, which we slather on a lot of bare wood as a sealer. (I'm not sure where you'll find Mar-X-ite in your local area. We get it at Admiral Ship Supply in Port Townsend; you could probably order it directly from Fisheries Supply in Seattle...www.fisheriessupply.com)
Is your fir ply half-inch in thickness, or thicker? Besides taping all of the seams and edges with 3' to 4-inch-wide fiberglass tape soaked in resin (probably two layers of tape, for strength), I'd consider covering the whole floor with overlapping panels of 6-ounce fiberglass cloth. If you want to avoid the cost of a lot of resin and cloth, you could just seal the heck out of the floor surface after taping the edges, and apply two coats of Interlux Deck Kote (or whatever they call the one-part paint with built-in nonskid grit). It comes in various colors, but the light gray works best in terms of hiding muddy footprints and general grime.
The recommendation to maybe cover the floor with fiberglass cloth is made with a lot of hesitation. It can strengthen the floor a bit and keep some water away from the ply, but after running the boat for awhile you're liable to develop stress cracks along edges or seams of the plywood. If you then allow any water to stand inside the cockpit, it'll seep down into the plywood, get trapped and cause rot faster than if you'd never covered the wood with cloth. (I just finished demolishing the entire cockpit area of a sailboat that had 6-oz. glass cloth over a lot of fir ply--rot everywhere--so I'm not feeling warm-and-fuzzy about cloth over fir plywood. Much better to use marine-mahogany ply in the 1088 Grade, since it'll last far longer than any of the fir plywoods.)
- Marty
I used heavy 1708 biaxial on the 404 over birch plywood. First I laid down a full layer of resin to soak into the wood, Then I taped the edges with 4 inch 8 oz cloth. Then it was time for the 1708. It was a total pain to work with because of the thickness, but in the end, I have a super strong, water tight seal over the floor. And it took about 4 gallons of resin...
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