Dinghy slats

[Brian D]

My Mercury dinghy has wooded slats for flooring. One of them broke but is still intact. My concern is splinters that might penetrate the rubber floor of the dinghy.

What would be a good replacement for all the wooden slats in the dinghy?

 

[All U Get]

Hi Brian,

When we had a roll up dinghy I used a sheet of 1/2" Sea Board. I cut the sheet in half and trimmed it to fit. The parts couldn't come out when the tubes were inflated but sometimes one would slide under the other a bit. Never got around to modifying those parts.

All U Get

 

[Brian D]

I had thought about making a removable floor but didn't think about using SeaBoard, but thought about StarBoard. I see that the SeaBoard is more flexable. I think that would be better. Thanks. Will look into it.

 

[capta]

In the old Avons they had 3 section floorboards. Eventually the back two would break and I replaced them with a single piece of 3/4" marine ply. I'd bevel the edges and the 3/4 was big enough that the bow piece wouldn't slip under. It worked like a charm, was very cheap and outlasted the dink. The worst thing for any inflatable is to use it under inflated and have flexibility between the parts, so they can wear the rubber.

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

If you really wan to use wood, I'd use ash

 

[njlarry]

Another option, one layer of fiberglass cloth around the broken joint.

 

[Brian D]

I also thought about fiberglassing all the slats. But I think I want something or a more solid flooring. It is a roll-up so the flooring has to come out and be small enough to transport.

Why ash?

I was also thinking of a firm rubber maybe 1/2" thick. So many options.

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

Ash is a very resilient wood. One reason oars are usually made from Ash.

 

[Brian D]

Got it. Thanks.

 

[Tricia]

I used okoume plywood

coated with epoxy on my old Achilles dinghy. As far as I know, it's held up well.