2011: Post 47 – Disko floor

Continued from previous Post 46…

I had been thinking about the floor a lot in the past few weeks.  Options for the floor seems to be to dowel wood strips to the frames, lash the floor boards to the frames (like this; go to day 10 to see a pic), or to secure angles to the frames and secure the floor boards to them (like this).

I did not like the idea of doweling the floor boards as this seemed to be a more permanent option and kept thinking if the floor (or one of the boards) needed to be replaced for some reason it would seem difficult to do.

I liked the idea of lashing the floor, but I do not think there would be enough thickness left in the bottoms of the frames once a notch is cut to receive the board.

So I went with the option of using angles.  Off to Home Depot for an aluminum angle and some stainless steel machine screws…

For the floor boards I used pieces left over from the ¾ inch strips cut from the 2x4 cedar.  I glued one inch wide spacers between each board to give me a total of 6.5 inch wide floor boards.

Then I secured the angles to the frames.  The angles on the front are located so as to keep the top of the floor about level with the top of the frame…

 Masik, looking toward the cockpit

Masik, looking toward the bow

The angles in the back are kept lower so as to keep the center of gravity as low as possible…

I faced the screws toward the cockpit at both ends and positioned them so they would be below the top of the floor boards and within the spaces created by the spacers; this should prevent my drysuit from snagging on these bolts when getting in and out... 

Still have to sand off the excess glue...

I won’t bolt the floor boards to the angles but instead will use some bungee that will be secured to the angles and be snug enough to hold the floor in place.  I want the option of being able to remove the floor when cleaning out dirt in the cockpit area, or if I happen to break a board I can easily replace it.  If I find the bungee does not work then I will lash the boards to the angles and then can just cut the lashing whenever I need to remove the floor, and then relash it back in place.  But I am thinking the bungee will work as long as it is tight enough to hold it in place.