End of season question.

[flyingwelshman]

So my first season of sailing is officially over: yesterday we tarped the boat and I spent the day today cleaning up and disassembling my dinghy. Which brings me to a question:
I have a Quicksilver 270 S-EA (8’9”). The deck consists of 3 panels of plywood, connected by aluminum ‘H’ joints. According to the manual , to take the deck apart, you simply remove the 2 side joiners. Then it is an easy matter of lifting the deck and the pieces come apart. Right!
The side joiners came off pretty easily, but the lifting of the deck was inhibited by the dinghy material.
We tried to remove the deck when the dinghy was semi-inflated (as it was when we put it together) and we gradually deflated the chambers – trying to lift the deck at regular intervals.
The deck finally came apart, but it wasn’t pretty.
I thought there must be a better way to do this.
Does anyone have any advice, suggestions about how this can be done more easily? (or money they can give me to replace the inflatable with a rigid tender? )
Thanks in advance
Dave

[sailingdog]

If the floorboards came out more easily, they wouldn't stay in position while the dinghy was in use. Can't have it both ways unfortunately.

[JimsCAL]

My Achilles is similar. It has four plywood floorboards with plastic side stiffeners. You really have to have the thing completely deflated to remove the floor. I find that once the stiffeners are removed, just pulling up at the joint between two floorboards does it. I agree it can be a pain in the a** at times.