DaySailer.org Forum

Hi all,

Over the winter (long New England winter) I want to refinish the mahogany floorboards (and maybe coaming/s) on my DS1. Currently the boards are a bit wracky and are fastened with nails and staples.

I plan to do 'em right -- I guess sand, bleach? (with what?), fill the open wood (with what?), maybe stain a bit (?? not sure about this, I don't want too dark a color and I don't care for the orangey hue of Cetol). I hope to find some brass single slotted screws (I think that might have been the original fastening; in any case slotted heads will look more pleasing and will echo the "slots" between the mahogany boards).

My questions are thus:

1. What to use for the fasteners? 1.5" inch long, brass screws? All I seem to find are 1/4" diameter screws. Is this right? Of course I want the heads flush with the floorboard surface. Must I/should I countersink them? OR, since they are small in diameter, can I use regular marine brass flat head single slotted screws and just screw them down into the wood -- that is not buying and using "countersunk" heads with a jig? Other than refinishing the surface of woods, I've no "woodworking" experience and am rather 3-dimensionally challenged as far as "seeing" 3-D configurations. I do enjoy making beauty out of dull gray wood and know how to use a random orbital finishing sander and a sash brush.

2. How to finish? And do I finish before screwing boards back together or afterwards? I'm guessing before. Do I use filler for the open grain wood as a cabinetmaker would? Colored? Do I use something like the Interlux Schooner ___ ____ ? Polyurethane? Spar Varnish? Or something like Minwax Helmsman's spar varnish/clear polyurethane. I imagine I should use many thin coats (of whatever), sanding lightly between each coat if I let it cure more than a few weeks?

Thanks for any feedback you can offer. I am away from the boat right now, but am near to several marine supply stores where I hope to pick up what I need for the brightwork (is this what it's called?) project.

Oh, and another thing, I'm thinking that when I've got the floorboards disassembled and numbered, I might want to note their dimensions or make templates in the event I or others want to make new ones from scratch. Is there a good way to approach making the templates or do I just make sketches? (I told you I'm 3-D challenged, right?).

hightide

Hi,

when I got mine, they were fastened with bronze nails, but some previous owner had used steel as well. I first tried replacing with, or simply adding, bronze nails, the ones with the little ridges.

Some of my floorboards are a bit warped, which makes it tough to hold them to the cross pieces (there's a constant force pulling them apart, and once they separate a bit, any step will put the fastener through a load/ unload cycle).

I ended up replacing /adding bronze screws, as long as I could fit, and the width selected a bit on how wide the hole(s) has become.

My goal here is mainly restoring function, not full restoration. If a board has one or two extra holes across, I just add additional screws, rather than trying to fill and patch them. They do need to be countersunk well..

Finish: I've used waterbased polyurethane on all the wood (Daly's aquaspar) - generally good results, except that this year, after the winter storage, there were large areas where last summer's coat that had flaked off. Winter temps really dipped into freezing this year (unusually so), that could be a reason, but I also suspect that I may have had an incompletely cleaned off layer of oil or wax last year.

For several years in a row there had been no such problems.

PS: If you haven't given up on this forum after waiting half a year for a reply, I'd be curious to know how your overhaul turned out.

I just replaced all of the nails in my floorboards with brass screws. The star/Phillips type. I used #8's, 1-1/4" & 7/8" in length depending on the depth of underlying brace piece.

I looked at getting the screws from West Marine but I was looking at about $65.00 (25 cents each). So I got them at Orchard Hardware instead for about $25.00. Given they are brass I don't think it is going to matter.

The existing floorboards were falling apart and some pieces had already separated. However some boards were still tight so I had to be careful not to break the planks. I managed to crack the two right where the paddle slot is located because the wood was the thinnest there. However they epoxied back together just fine.

The floorboards were originally nailed together with small ringed nails. Very nasty stuff as they were so old and brittle many had broken off and nearly all broke as I pryed the boards from the underlying supports. It took quite a while to get the nails removed. Once they were all screwed together the floorbaords were quite rigid and strong. I also like the look of the brass screws.

I am now in the process of sanding each board, a board at a time. When they are all sanded I will refinish with varnish. I am debating whether or not to lightly stain and what color to use.

This will be a lot of work but will be well worth when done. I wanted to restore but not to perfectly original condition.

Getting the ringed nails out is indeed tricky.

I'm using mine in saltwater at times and didn't want to rely on brass, even under varnish, so I went with bronze. About half the nails are still original and working fine, so I never took my flooboards apart all the way.

The original varnish (or what was in place when got my boat) does seem to have had a light stain applied. Definitely more than the yellowish cast from the polyurethane I've been using.

I used a wood conditioner (Benite) where I had gone down to the bare wood. That seems to have a darkening effect but it's not 100% the original coloration.