Drop Boards

[USCGRET1990]

Oh, I purposely stained every other board for "affect"..!

[USCGRET1990]

Originally Posted by USCGRET1990

Amigo, solid teak boards do not warp, period. They're to full of oil. If someone out there has a warped teak board, send us a pic!

Well, they do warp..I weren't paying attention to what you were talking about...ooops.

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by otaga05

Sailingdog, I am interested to hear how you went about adding a bridge deck to your boat. Did you do it yourself or have it done professionally? Do you have any pictures of how it turned out?

Otaga05

I did it myself. I still have to finish painting it with topsides and non-skid paint, but it's finished other than that. I will post photos and text of how I did it later this week. I hope to have it painted this week, but the boat is up on stands and I've got the sodablasting guys coming over on Tuesday to tent the boat and they're supposed to sodablast on Wednesday, weather permitting.

[Denr]

Why not make them out of "Nut N Honey" spent cereal boxes, you'll save some bucks on the material costs, they're laminated on one side so that will be the weather side, brightly colored so they'll not be lost or misplaced and not offend any tree hugger for harvesting exotic trees.

[Bardo]

Okay, I am now confused (no mystery there). Will a 3/4 x 10 inch solid teak board, prepped and sealed with Cetol warp? Can o' Worms re-opened. I am fixing to start this project, so its cruch time (the cereal boxes are looking pretty good now too!)

[USCGRET1990]

Moisture wise they shouldn't but no telling what the sun (temp. changes) will do. Hard to tell, as most folks that have warped ones didn't keep them sealed. But a grand width of 10" is probably asking for it.

[tdw]

Ours are ply. Going on twenty years old, near a bit of the old wet and dry and a coat of varnish but otherwise AOK. As mentioned before the upper piece(s) need to slot into the lower to prevent ingress of water between the join.

Another point and this really only applies to any vessel that does not have a bridge deck. The three piece setup will be good in this case if the first board becomes a de facto bridge deck. You really do need to have a way to close off the companionway up to the level of the cockpit seats in case you ship something water into the cockpit. Cockpit drains are somewhat less effective than a companionway when it comes to emptying a cockpit and water will always take the path of least resistance.

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by tdw

Ours are ply. Going on twenty years old, near a bit of the old wet and dry and a coat of varnish but otherwise AOK. As mentioned before the upper piece(s) need to slot into the lower to prevent ingress of water between the join.

Another point and this really only applies to any vessel that does not have a bridge deck. The three piece setup will be good in this case if the first board becomes a de facto bridge deck. You really do need to have a way to close off the companionway up to the level of the cockpit seats in case you ship something water into the cockpit. Cockpit drains are somewhat less effective than a companionway when it comes to emptying a cockpit and water will always take the path of least resistance.

This is why I added a bridge deck to my boat. The top of the bridge deck is almost exactly the height of the original bottom-most drop board. Now, I have just two drop boards.

Each dropboard has a 1/4" hole drilled into the upper port corner, so that a fast pin can be put through the companionway rails and the dropboard and hold them in place.

[USCGRET1990]

[QUOTE=sailingdog]This is why I added a bridge deck to my boat. The top of the bridge deck is almost exactly the height of the original bottom-most drop board.
And I believe we are still awaiting pics of that bridge deck....

[sailingdog]

Haven't finished painting it yet... Will take photos and post when it's pretty...