Dinghy flooring

[Brian D]

My dinghy does not have a floor per se. Yes it has a floor and it has wood slats, but the slats are very thing and I already broke one. It is an 8' 10" soft floor Mercury.

What would be a "better" flooring for my inflatable? And, how would I prevent that from ripping into the PVC material causing a catastrophic failure? This is not a project I am willing to take on right now, but in the near future.

 

[SFS]

No first hand experience here, so just floating an idea. If starboard comes relatively thin, you could cut it and soften the edges by sanding or routing. Nothing to catch the PVC. However, I don't know how the strength of starboard diminishes as it gets thinner.

 

[Brian D]

Personally I am scared to even stand in the dinghy when on the water. So I don't even know the strength of the PVC flooring right now.

 

[Meriachee]

starboard or uv stable nylon planking would work. You should easily be able to get that stuff cut to size, and then likely all you'd have to do is round off the edges.

 

[Sailm8]

Several of the boaters in my area have put in wood floors. The one I have seen first hand is plywood with an epoxy finish. Seems to work just fine.

 

[Brian D]

I am thinking along the same lines. Does not have to be the entire length of the boat. But have you know anyone who has stood on a roll up floor and not gone through it?

 

[Rich Stidger]

I once had an Achiles that had a 3 piece wood floor. In order to provide a fairly stiff floor the three pieces connected by a U shaped edge between the sections. But the substantial stiffening was from 2 U shaped plastic strips that hooked over the fore-aft outside edges. It was quite solid.

 

[capta]

Over the years I have cut plywood floors to replace those that came with the old Avons.
I used 1" thick marine ply (I had big motors), beveled the edges, well painted and made sure there were no rough or sharp spots. Since your boat is floorless, you'll need to put a batten across the inboard transom to hold the floor down to the correct level aft, so it isn't pushing up on the tubes aft.
To install, deflate the dink until the beveled floor board (bevel up to tube) slips into the groove between the bottom, the tubes and the batten on the transom, then inflate. Since your dink has no reinforcement for this sort of floorboard as the Avons did, I'm not too sure how many years you'll be using it, but properly done I would guess at least several years of hard use. This will give you real, reliable floorboards. I'd think you could get by with 3/4" in one piece on a small boat like that, but maybe a separate bow triangle piece would make assembly easier, as we did on the 10'6" boats.

 

[jibes138]

Like Rich my Achilles had a wooden floor with the plastic joint pieces. You can get the plastic joints at Defender. I don't recall the plywood thickness but it is more like 3/8 or 1/2 inch. Epoxy won't work in the sun unless you paint over it. The plastic pieces hold it together but also act against fabric chafe on the edges. You can always cut the plastic pieces to length to fit your dinghy. As for plywood thickness I built a sailing dinghy and the floor is 1/4 inch thick marine plywood. Match the plywood size to the grooves in the plastic pieces.

 

[Chief RA]

Brian D: Is the old floor a high pressure blow up floor that has gone bad? Mine only has 2 cross slats under it plus the blow up keel but it holds 9 lbs of air pressure and gets super hard. They sell a sealer for blow up boats that would work for such a floor, plus putting plywood shaped slats underneath would strengthen it. Come back, Chief

 

[Brian D]

Here is my dinghy. The floor is just material with no air pockets. But it does have the slats. They are made from very thin wood and one is broken. They are inside the lateral pockets but not attached to the floor.

 

[Chief RA]

Are the lateral slats structured pockets bonded to the bottom rather than the floor underside as mine are? Is there a blow up keel as well? I have never seen a floor built in the manner your picture shows. I've owned 7 of these! I have seen roll ups but not floor slatting such as yours. Can you readily access the area below the cross surface floor slats? If you can access below floor slats I think marine grade plywood painted cross supports are the answer as has been suggested.
Sorry for all the questions but I am trying to help! Chief

 

[LloydB]

A few pieces of this kind of stuff came to mind. I don't know how handy it would be but you could probably Velcro it in place over the existing support. There are probably many others this is just the first one I found (fastdeck.com)

 

[Chief RA]

Lloyd B.: Velcro is probably a practical suggestion to not have to rely on the premade pockets for his fix. Chief

 

[Brian D]

Are the lateral slats structured pockets bonded to the bottom rather than the floor underside as mine are?

Yes, the slat are floating above the floor with space between the floor and the slat.

Is there a blow up keel as well?

No, there is no keel nor does the floor inflate to provide support. It is just a piece of PVC material. That is why I have said that I am scared to stand on the floor. This is why I want to add a "real" floor. Not so much to stand in the boat, but if I step in my weight will be distributed over a wider area than just under my foot.

Can you readily access the area below the cross surface floor slats?

Yes, there is space below the slats. I have not checked how much space or how the slat pockets are connected. One can purchase replacement slats from Mercury I believe so that must mean their is a way to "fix" them.

 

[Chief RA]

Boy! You really gave a great presentation of the problem/issue.
Floating slats: How about a camping size air mattress placed inside the void? That would support the slats I would think.
No keel: A blow up keel would have helped support their floor! That helps support using an air mattress under there.
Even if an air mattress won't fit, just brain storm on various blow ups to insert under, pillows,etc. Hope I have triggered some concepts. Chief

 

[Brian D]

As a matter of fact, it did.

When I was trekking around Afghanistan I carried a mat with me. It was an insulation mat that was placed on the cot to keep the cold air from chilling the buns, if I may. Anyway, it was make of a stiff PVC type material. I don't know exactly what it was but it was difficult to roll up. I can't seem to recall exactly what is was called but it triggered exercise mats.

Thick exercise or yoga mats, like 15mm (.59") that could be cut to size and placed inside the boat. Cheap, water resistant, not very sun resistant but it will not be in the sun all the time. Plus it can be rolled up out of or, maybe, inside the boat.

Thanks!

 

[Chief RA]

How about putting them layered to take up the void under the slats? Chief

 

[Brian D]

That's even a better idea. Thanks CRA.

 

[Chief RA]

Your welcome, glad I could help a little. My best, Chief