I was planning on putting in a new deck next summer, but my dad happened into some 1/4" aluminum plate for free from a job that was canceled. I drug my boat up to brother's house in Washington so we could start planning on the work. While Michael and I were enjoying the Oregon State Fair my mom called to tell me all the decking was cut and in place! Cool Deal!


Wes and dad doing the measurements and cutting on a weekend I thought they were just going to do planning. Poor Wes was up until 3am that morning hanging out with his friends, I owed him big time! He said my debt would be settled if I made him some white chocolate macadamia cookies. I did!! A bunch of them!!


Here is the floor all cut an in place. they used a skill saw with a metal cutting blade and a jig saw for the two curved pieces near the bow. Dad had a welder put some 1 inch pieces down around the gas tank and to make a place for the battery box. We put in a master battery switch, re-plumbed the bilge pump.


My brother's friend Jon, is putting on the primer, zinc chromate. It etches the aluminum and will give a good place for the non-skid paint to adhere to. We ended up using velcro, Pavati drift boats use velcro to attach their decking so we are giving that a shot. Not much reason to get down in the bilge but once a year to do cleaning anyway.


Finally, a picture of me working on my boat! Rolling out the Durabak non-skid paint in light grey. Really cool stuff! It's what is used on the research boats I have been on and Navy as well. Used less than 1 gallon to cover 80 sq. feet, I have another gallon if anyone is interested!


New deck all done and drying. There are two drain holes in the back and an access hatch to put the drain plug in. I don't plan on putting the seat boxes back in, alot of Seattle guides are going away with stationary seats and using folding/camping chairs so I am going to give that a shot. We plan on using it for some lake camping next summer and this will be good for hauling everyone's camping gear.

I hope to get the boat back down to Oregon in the next few weeks and trying it out. It added 150 lbs over the dry marine plywood decking, I generally don't carry more than 3-4 people total so I don't think it will have been too much weight. Best part is that it was free!

Looks Good!! Keep us posted on how well tyhe Velcro works.

Brandon

The industrial Velco type materials work very well. Most of your quality motor yacht builders use it to secure headliner panels in place which have some amount of weight to them. Don't be surprised if you have to use a "cats paw" bar to start the velco to release after it been in place for awhile..
I use it to keep carpet down in my drifter floor and it stays put..

nice!!!looks great Geana..great score on the Aluminum.

B

Nice!
IF I am ever able have a sled, I would also skip the perminatly mounted seats on boxs. I would want 4 or 5 of the pedistal style (like the skipper/opperators sits on at the tiller) seats so the space. could fit the type of fishging and number of seat 'ho's. I have been fishing in an open 18' that had the patio style white stackable plastic chairs. It was fine on hooh and trolling, but the ride oh step left a little to be desired - kind of like a carnival ride.

Lazy Boy Recliners...!

Hey, Nice deck there, Geana!!

• Rickster Said:

Without seat boxes where you going to put all your krap? Documents, tools, sea anchors, rod hlders, spare clothing, sun tan lotion and mosquito repellent?

Thorbuilt will find a place for that ... Who needs cup holders?

Tilla has a good point.. The best thing about anchored seat boxes is you offer your passengers some protection if you ground the boat hard. Sitting in lawn chairs up on plane everything is going to tip/slide forward in a "Dog pile"..

Maybe I'm thinking to careful here but insurance claims are not fun, especially personal injury..

Camp chairs have built in cup holders! More sturdy than lawn chairs.

Crap goes in the fish box. Any fish go in the katch cooler bags those things rock and you don't have to clean the boat when your done (since I don't have an easy location to clean the boat when I am done!)

Passegers can sit up on the bow area/fishbox/storage locker if it's scarry ... I can see a faster on plane time with certain seat 'ho's! Good point though, Mike. I keep thinking about how much sitting around time there is side drifting compared to trolling or on hook. The ability to confige the floor space for the trip dejour seems pretty important to me on that kind of investment. It' not easy being cheap!

MORE VELCRO..!

All kidding aside I have eight places in my drifter that utilize some type of velcro..

Nice work on that floor.

Working for Trimet, I've found they use velcro to keep all their seat pads in place. If it can hold up to the hoodlums who use and abuse the buses it has to be pretty good stuff.

oops

test

test works

I had to post that test to remove a bug that JT found, there is a few of those test post from the other day.