Securing floorboards

[danielgoldberg]

Has anyone used velcro to do this? I'm thinking of routing out small portions of the underside of the floorboards to use heavy duty velcro to keep the floorboards secured (the routing is necessary to keep the boards flush and prevent them from sitting proud). The design is not intended to keep anything that's stowed under the floorboards in place (that stuff all is secured already, such as batteries, etc.), it's just meant to keep the floorboards themselves from becoming missiles, so presumably the velcro should be able to work for that purpose. Some new boats are coming with the boards secured that way, and the velcro is surprisingly strong; you actually have to use some force to get the boards up.

Anyone have first hand experience with this?

[sailingdog]

Should work pretty well. I've used it to hold temporary wall panels up in a photo studio.

[TrueBlue]

I would be more inclined to use a pair of brass or stainless friction catches for securing floor panels. The two units can be rotated to 90 degrees, eliminating the need for morticing.

[sailingdog]

The PYI panel fasteners are good too..but a bit pricey.

[Plumper]

I'm guessing that you are even considering this because of the problem loose floorboards would create in a roll over. Sure the velcro may hold the floor boards in place for the roll but if you ship any water they will float right off and your cabin sole would be a minefield of holes to make your way across. The battening down of floorboards serves two purposes: The won't come out in a roll over and they won't float off in a flood.

[Sasha_V]

On the other hand, lets be honest. If he gets more then floorboard deep water, he is not going to just sit back and listen to the little electric bilge pump going brrrrr. He is going to PULL UP A SECTION OF FLOORING and get a bucket in there as well.

i think velcro soudns liek areasonable solution. Concerns about it are Contamination with sand, dust and crud which makes the velcro deteriorate very quickly and lose most of its grip. Movement, mnost floors flex hither and yon just abit and this si fine given that boats bend just atouch so that some ribs are more in contact on som occassions then others. Do you a) want the sound of velcro every time you tack or b) want the sound of velcro when you walk across the boards given they are likely cut just a little bit too small to allow for boat flex?

Just some thoughts to ponder.

Sasha

[danielgoldberg]

The PYI fasteners are great, but they truly are pricey. I have 12 floorboards, and using them would add about $1500 to teh cost just for the hardware.

By the way, in response to a commment or two from others, the velcro I'm talking about is seriously heavy duty stuff. It's not like what you would get from your average hardware store. We're actually going to have to give a yank to get the boards up when we want to. The boards aren't just going to float away if the velcro gets wet (but by that point I'm in much bigger trouble anyway).

[Sapperwhite]

Velcro might work well. It may keep the board from sitting flush with the rest of the cabin sole though. There are some nice fitting made for this though. ABI Marine makes really nice fittings, and the have a "turning lock lift handle" that looks like it would work well. It will cost a lot more than velcro, but it will be a permanent solution. Check this out, ABI Turning Lock Lift Handle

[TrueBlue]

Dan, The only reason I mentioned that style friction catch is, all cabinet doors, drawers and selected sole hatches on my recent Nauticat have that style - hold really well and are easy to install.

Although the cabinet / locker doors and drawer latches have an added lever, requiring a bored hole for finger release (like child-guard latches), horizontal panels did not.

Upon a closer search, I found these in solid brass and actually closer to what I had . . . at only 1.99 ea and available from Ace hardware. One pair per panel should hold. That's 48.00 total. I assume the panels already have flush finger pulls.

[danielgoldberg]

Not sure there's an easy way to install these and keep the floorboards flush.