Hi -
Has anyone been able to cut the cabin sole floorboards for a Nonesuch 26C from one 4x8 sheet of plywood?
If so is there a pattern available somewhere ? Thanks in advance for any advice from anyone who has done this already!
Dave Fournier
26C #115
INUA
Toms River, NJ
Dave I have replaced my cabin sole floor boards on our NS 26 Classic 199 as of last year. I used two sheets of teak and holly ply. There is no other way around it (in my humble opinion) and you do have a some wastage…totally unusable for any other area but the centre line above the bilge.
Process: remove the old floor. You will note that on the NS26 Classic there is a fibreglass sub floor. (at least there was on our boat) This is extremely helpful to securing the newly cut floor boards and the only template that would make sense is your own as there may be some variation. (although not likely much) …the down side is that there curve around the perimeter of the complete footprint that snugs (convex) against the (concave) fibreglass sub floor. In other words, you can’t just do a straight cut from your floor template which by now you hopefully have removed and saved the pieces. I took the floor boards to a rare woods supplier and picked up the last two sheets of Teak and Holly Marine Ply and laid out my old floor boards on the shop floor and explained the required semi bull nose cut…The staff then cut out the new floor from my old floor boards which ended up bing the perfect template. They did a fantastic job except the bull nose was not quite right so when I installed I had to do a bit of sanding in a few spots to get it right and a close fit. Even after I installed all but the 4 small centre boards sections over the bilge (full length) I had to trim back ( our club table saw) a few centimetres on the section from the bow bulkhead to the section under the table which was no big deal but I was too afraid I would over trim the rounded edge too much and have slack. You want this to be true as you can as my guess is that a poor fit may generate creaks initially and then splitting or cracking later.
I then applied 7 coats of clear urethane….. looks great when True Love is not on the hard while waiting for the snow and ice to melt and leave our bay…
Just an after thought:
Perhaps you could contact Butch Garren ( Nonsucher .. annual registry) in the Soloman Islands Md. he may be able to direct you to a source closer to you than here up in Canada….dave
Dave -Thank you very much for all the useful information. I did remove the old floor boards and was happy to see that there was a fiberglass floor underneath. The wood I removed was so rotten it will be tough to use as a good template . Did you seal all of the edges with epoxy too ? I think that may have been the original source of the problem.
Dave Fournier
Dave: I did urethane all sides of the floor boards and the edges….I found that the floor board section in front of the head door was my source of delaminating. The head was the culprit as occasionally it would not be completely dry when sailing healed over in a heavy sea. The spilled water from the head would trap in the shower (never used) cavity but some of the balance would flow under the bulkhead wall. The head shut off valve may also contributed the problem and generally the floor looked tired. I found I could not remove the floor without really damaging the overall look. That is; not all of the wooden plugs over the brass screws were easily removed without ruining the thin veneer.I tried but failed 3 for 1 so in the end when installing the floor, I used brass screws with a ring collar ( I’m not sure I’m using the right descriptor) which may give a little feel on bare feet as the screw head is just above the floor veneer. The collar may or may not protect the veneer in the event you might want to remove the floor boards at a later date. I’m not skilled enough to be a complete purist (wooden peg covers) and decided if I wanted to sail at all the summer I did the job I had to finish in a timely manner. That was the story I told the Admiral and I’m sticking to it.
Dave Bailey True Love 199