Cabin Sole

[JonLee]

Hey guys,

For those of you who have already finished you boats (or are at least farther along than me), did you chamfer the ends of the boards on the cabin sole to match up with where they meet the hull (in profile)? Do your boards contact the hull, or did you leave a gap? And, most importantly, based on how you did it, what would you recommend doing.

My current plan for fitting the cabin sole is to cut the ends to the correct angle (in planform), and then chamfer the lower 1/2 of the end of the board (either at 45 deg or at the approximate angle of the hull at that location..\). And then do the whole batten-cut a fair curve thing, as recommended in the manual. Thoughts?

[Pascal]

I did not cut any angle anywhere. I thought an assembly with thickened epoxy will end up stronger... I tried to spend a little more time on making sure that every filet was done fast enough to put the fiberglass before it dried. Keep up the great work.

[mark48]

Hey guys,

For those of you who have already finished you boats (or are at least farther along than me), did you chamfer the ends of the boards on the cabin sole to match up with where they meet the hull (in profile)? Do your boards contact the hull, or did you leave a gap? And, most importantly, based on how you did it, what would you recommend doing.

My current plan for fitting the cabin sole is to cut the ends to the correct angle (in planform), and then chamfer the lower 1/2 of the end of the board (either at 45 deg or at the approximate angle of the hull at that location..\). And then do the whole batten-cut a fair curve thing, as recommended in the manual. Thoughts?

Hi all,

No one answered Jon's specific question about fitting the cabin sole floorboards, and so I am asking it again. There are two parts to this question for those of you who have proceeded past the floorboards stage of your PS build:

First as Jon asks above, are builders chamfering or relieving the outboard edges of the floorboards as they contact the hull laterally (which would provide marginally more lateral space), or simply leaving the outboard edges square (with gentle round-overs)?

And second, the floor boards as supplied by CLC are about 3/4" short of the space between bulkhead 2 & bulkhead 8. Jeff Hatch seems to have filled this space with a narrow piece of wood placed athwartships on top of the cleat (already glued to bulkhead 2). CLC suggests that the 3/4" gap is intended to be split 3/8" fore and aft, but it seems this would be an ideal space to lose stuff and very difficult from which to fish out the missing pencils, etc.

Any suggestions on how other builders managed these issues are much appreciated.

Thanks, all,
Mark

[Shudoman]

Yes I did bevel the ends of my some floorboards. I didn't take then down to where there was a "knife edge" meeting the hull but I beveled them as necessary to get as close a fit as possible I don't like deep cracks that can catch junk. Some were done out of necessity to fit the curve closely but not be higher than the one next to it. The very outboard ones needed very little beveled from underneath. I guess the way to describe it is that I beveled where it seemed like it needed it. I'm not sure if it was necessary but they came out nice. http://pocketship.blogspot.com/2012/04/painting-and-floor-boards.html

Bill

[ddemasie]

For the floorboards meeting the hull. I rounded the bottom edge of the floorboards wherever they met up with the hull (by hand, did not use a router) - I left a small gap there so it does not trap any water if it were to get wet - I figured that I want that water to drain quickly away from the floor boards since they are relatively unprotected (yes, there is an oil finish coating, but no paint or epoxy seal). The only real issue I have with that is that if you drop something in there (like a nut or washer when working on the final finish inside the cabin) - you have to take out a floorboard or 2 to retrieve it

My floorboards were also just a tad short - I added a second 'extender' to the far aft floorboard support cleat on bulkhead 8 so I could anchor the floorboards solidly at the back - there is a small gap at the back of the cabin between the floorboards and bulkhead 8 on mine. After you put on the foot well and the seats, you'll never see it again anyway, unless you are crawling in that very tight space to work on something.

I am actually glad to hear Mark had the same 'short floorboard' issue - I though I had somehow gotten a bulkhead mounted about a 1/4" off.

[JonLee]

As a follow up, I did end up chamfering the boards as needed. As Bill says, not down to a sharp edge, but maybe down to a 1/4 at the thinnest. This was a process of trial and error and may trips between the boat and the belt sander. I'm pretty sure I captured it in gruesome detail in a blog post.