I have the Achilles LEX-96 dinghy and I am making a new set of wooden floors. This dinghy originally had an inflatable floor and I traded my inflatable floor for a wooden floor from a friend.
The wooden floor that I received worked great but had splits and de-lamination issues that will only get worse, so I bought a piece of 7-ply marine plywood and I am cutting out the new floor pieces.
The original floor pieces had a "H" plastic extrusion attached to the aft end and the floors were marked with a number on the top side. (Picture #1)
The profile of the "H" plastic extrusion is pictured in the second photo below. The right side of the extrusion (the deeper side of the H) is glued to the floor section and the left side engages the adjacent floor section.
Note that the left side has un-equal sides and this is further shown in picture #3.
Now for my question:
Which side of the un-equal end should be on the top of the floor? The longer edge or the shorter edge? Unfortunately, all of these H extrusions were loose and I have no way of knowing if they were installed correctly when I received them. Pictures and videos I have found on the 'net have not shown this detail. The instructions simply state "Install the floor boards with the number label on top.
I can make a case for the longer edge to be on the top and also on the bottom, so I can't reason this answer out.
Does somebody have one of these dinghy's and is willing to check the orientation for me? I would think that all three floor pieces would have the H extrusion oriented the same way, but that is the second question to answer.
The wooden floor that I received worked great but had splits and de-lamination issues that will only get worse, so I bought a piece of 7-ply marine plywood and I am cutting out the new floor pieces.
The original floor pieces had a "H" plastic extrusion attached to the aft end and the floors were marked with a number on the top side. (Picture #1)
The profile of the "H" plastic extrusion is pictured in the second photo below. The right side of the extrusion (the deeper side of the H) is glued to the floor section and the left side engages the adjacent floor section.
Note that the left side has un-equal sides and this is further shown in picture #3.
Now for my question:
Which side of the un-equal end should be on the top of the floor? The longer edge or the shorter edge? Unfortunately, all of these H extrusions were loose and I have no way of knowing if they were installed correctly when I received them. Pictures and videos I have found on the 'net have not shown this detail. The instructions simply state "Install the floor boards with the number label on top.
I can make a case for the longer edge to be on the top and also on the bottom, so I can't reason this answer out.
Does somebody have one of these dinghy's and is willing to check the orientation for me? I would think that all three floor pieces would have the H extrusion oriented the same way, but that is the second question to answer.
