LGsailer wrote:One question, Reedd your boat came with floor boards? How did they attach? My boat floor looks similar to yours but did not come with floor boards. I assume they are just cosmetic but may I may want to install them in the future.
Early DS1 floor boards come in four sections. The dividing line fore-aft is about at the thwarts (9" from the forward edge of the seats). And there's a shelf that goes underneath the rear deck. All of these rest on the floor w/o anything to attach them. The floor boards are made from a number of longitudinal slats, held together by a few cross braces below, which also form the part that sits on the floor. All the cross braces have a hollow curve on the bottom, so only the two ends connect to the hull. Because of rather loose tolerances in building the DS, these ends (feet) are filed away to allow an even fit.
The main function of these floor boards is looks. If you do get water in the boat, they also help keep feet/gear moderately dry, while at the same time preventing you from getting at and removing any shallow puddles of water.
If you don't want to recreate them, you might think of creating a platform in the cuddy to keep your gear dry. When I removed my floorboards several years ago for refinishing (yeah, moving very slowly on that job) I took a simple sheet of plywood and laid it across the keelson aft of the mast. The hull sides aren't parallel, so I used some short bits of 2x2 to make feet for the aft side. Basically, I wedged those between the new platform and the hull and secured them with a single deck screw each (just enough to keep them loosely in place, angled, kind of like on a flexible joint). This curious jury rig has now survived several seasons. It sits higher than the floorboards did (they go next to the keelson up to half its height), thus doing a bit better at keeping gear dry. There's a spot in front of the mast that's not covered, and that's where I store fenders.
Because I have a mast jack, I can't completely prevent access to the mast step, another reason why I didn't try to build a more permanent platform for the entire cuddy. As it is, I pull it away from the mast 2-3 inches, raise the mast, and then shove it forward again.
As with all good jury rigs it was made from material at hand (and in that size
).
You may find that adding something to keep gear dry is something you might want. With the floorboards out, the cockpit has the hull exposed, so I made sure to generously cover bare spots with gelcoat paste for additional abrasion resistance. Being exposed helps with cleaning up minor leaks/splashes as they happen. I now have a large sponge sitting below the CB pivot (which tends to have a slow leak) and mostly don't see any standing water anymore.
by reedd » Sun May 03, 2020 5:15 pm 