What do you think? Belhaven cockpit decking

[Scott Dunsworth]

I am planning to dress up the cockpit floor. First I resawed some cherry and planned it to 3/8 inch. Then slightly rounded the edges.

2. The planks will be glued down with about 1/8 inch gap between them.

3. I will seal the planks with epoxy.

4. Then come back with epoxy mix with white pigment and fill inbetween the planks.

5. Give the whole thing a few more coats of epoxy.

6. When the time comes for the varnish, use a clear with uv protection.

7. Lay on about ten coats of varnish.

My only real concern was that the over coat of varnish would yellow with time and leave the white yellowed.

What do you all think? Any other concerns?

[Brent]

Magnificent Scott. This will be beautiful.

I suspect any yellowing cne be dealt with by some sandpaper and a fresh coat of varnish. A coat of varnish would probably be part of the annual commissioning.

As a thought provoker, have you considered leaving the space between the cherry strips open, allowing any water to run to the drain without getting the feet wet? From experience this will greatly improve comfort on those wonderful blustery spring and fall sailing days.

[Travis Votaw]

Looks very pretty, Scott. I agree with Brent, be sure to let the accumulated water drain off the tops of the strips. A couple of things - from personal experience of sailing off beaches, I always tracked a lot of sand into the cockpit and periodically needed to lift up the cockpit grating and hose the sand away. Secondly, I think that the cockpit floor would be subject to quite a bit of wear (from sand, dirt, etc., depending on whether you ever tracked any of that stuff aboard) so you might need to refinish it pretty often if you wanted to maintain a varnish finish.

I don't have anything on the cockpit floor on the Princess 22 yet, and it is really slick when wet. My plan is to make a removable grating out of some redwood that I already have and I probably won't finish it at all, except to sand it good. Of course, I have a BUNCH of grandkids who like to beachcomb and will be tracking sand aboard in spite of all I can do to prevent it.

Your boat is looking good. I know you are anxious to get it in the water.

[Scott Dunsworth]

First of all you are very right Travis about getting her wet. I had planed on launching her June of this year,but that isn't going to happen. I have been reading books on the great circle cruise and cruising from lake michigan to Kentucky lake. I dought I ever get to do the long one, but the Lake Michigan to Kentucky lake is a can do.

As for the floor I don't mind varnishing once a year. I am hoping that the groves between the boards will help with slickness.

Brent leaving the space open is something to think about. I seen a guy do an cabin floor this way in boatbuilder magazine and it look great.

Also my floor in the cabin is going to be done the same way.

It is a good thing I like varnishing because I am planning a great deal of cherry trim.

One bad thing about cherry though is it gets darker in sunlight. So I am hoping that the uv filters slow that down.

My Penobscot 14 was trimmed out in cherry and did pretty good. As with the Penobscot this boat will be garaged when not in use.

Scott

[Greg Luckett]

I don't have anything on the cockpit floor on the Princess 22 yet' date=' and it is really slick when wet. My plan is to make a removable grating out of some redwood that I already have and I probably won't finish it at all, except to sand it good. Of course, I have a BUNCH of grandkids who like to beachcomb and will be tracking sand aboard in spite of all I can do to prevent it.

Your boat is looking good. I know you are anxious to get it in the water.[/quote']

Why not just apply non-skid to the cockpit floor?

[Travis Votaw]

I thought about doing that, Greg, I even have the nonskid paint on hand. I might go ahead and put it on the floor. However, I like the idea of keeping my feet a little dryer by having the grating down there.

Since it is so easy to apply, I might paint it first while I'm working on the grating

[Scott Dunsworth]

Travis I seen your boat on the West coast trailer sailers site. She is lookin good. B.E.E.R. Cruise photos.

Scott

[Guest]

Scott, do you have a link to the site?

[Tom Lathrop]

Scott,

I have done this on decks but would not consider it for a cockpit sole. I love cherry wood and have used it for interior cabin soles where the strips were set tight with a slight roundover on the edges. Filling a gap where the ajacent edges are rounded over will make getting a sharply defined white line difficult if not impossible. The edges should be straight and sharp.

Varnish on a cockpit sole is not a good idea. Slick and hard to maintain. this is usually the wettest area on a boat. Any breach of the coating on cherry that gets wet will quickly turn black.

People have used cockpit grates for many years for good reasons.

[capnrazz]

You should probably use a flexible sealant between the boards if you seal the gaps. Expansion and contraction from heat and sun exposure will cause an epoxy filler to crack pretty quickly. Some form or another of polysulfide is usually used to bed and seal joints in laid teak decks. Teak is a much better decking wood as it can be left unfinished and provides a good antiskid surface.

Razz

[Scott Dunsworth]

Oyster try www.members.ij.net/wctss/wctss/index.htm

Tom and Razz thanks for the heads up. I wish I had posted the question before I ripped all that beautiful cherry. I'll have to think about this some more.

Scott

[Guest]

i bet the cherry strips will make some nice interior seat trim, ceiling strips or else pack it up and ship it to me. Thanks for the link.