(Excerpt from Practical Boat Improvement Projects)

BY JAMES BALDWIN

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR REFINISHING

THE OLD CABIN SOLE

Atom's original plywood cabin sole was covered with a thin veneer of teak. Over the years this veneer became chipped and worn away by abrasion until it looked so hideous that I covered it with outdoor carpeting. The carpet was not the best solution because it could slip underfoot and had to be pulled up every time we needed access to the bilges. I considered repairing the chipped areas with epoxy filler and then painting the sole with a non-skid paint. It would be functional, but ugly. I then investigated laying a traditional teak and holly strip sole, but this presented other problems. Local timber suppliers South Africa informed me that any light colored wood similar to holly that they could get would need to be protected by varnish against rot or possible discoloration.

At the Hans Christian yacht factories I had worked at in Taiwan we installed elegant teak and holly cabin soles, but they were always sealed with varnish or clear urethane coatings. They did look beautiful, but on my own boat, I find them unacceptable because they are hard to maintain and become dangerously slippery when wet.

My solution was to resurface the damaged plywood sole with strips of African Iroko separated by lines of black sikaflex urethane sealant. This would look as attractive as a teak deck and be more practical than a teak and holly sole. Iroko looks much like teak and although it can eventually rot if left unprotected on deck, other boatbuilders who have used it assured me that for interior use it would last a lifetime with only an occasional wiping down with wood oil.

The first step is to inspect the plywood sole and its supporting floors, or bilge bulkheads. If you find evidence of damage in the floors it may be necessary to remove and replace the entire sole in order to effect a proper repair. In my case the floors and the plywood sole's base were basically intact so I moved on to preparing the old sole for its facelift. First I went over the sole with a number 36-grit disc on a grinder to remove the loose edges and roughen the surface. To remove oils and dirt I gave the sole a thorough washing with acetone. When dry, I filled all the low spots with epoxy resin thickened with talc powder to the consistency of peanut butter. After the epoxy hardened, I went over the surface again with the grinder to level it.

I found the existing bilge hatches were too small to permit easy access to the entire bilge. Using a jig saw, I cut the hatch openings to as large a size as was practical. Because the Triton cabin sole is quite narrow, the hatches could only be slightly widened, but I was able to lengthen them considerably. The laying of the new Iroko strips will be simplified if you are able to keep all the bilge hatches the same width and directly in line. Obviously, with new larger hatch cutouts, I would need to replace the original bilge hatch boards. To economize, instead of using expensive marine plywood, I bought off-cuts of exterior grade ¾-inch (18mm) plywood. After they were cut to size, I gave the edges a slight taper to help them fit better. I then coated them with epoxy to seal out moisture. To support the new hatch boards, strips of Iroko were glued along the underside of the soles, protruding about 5/8-inch (15mm) into the hatch cutout holes, and secured from above with flathead stainless steel screws.

With the hatch boards setting in place, I began measuring for the correct width of the Iroko strips. My main concern was not to end up with small uneven slivers of Iroko at any of the sole's edges. By laying these lines out on the sole with tape measure and pencil, I came up with an ideal layout of 10 Iroko strips, each 2 ¼-inches (55mm) wide, separated by ¼-inch (6mm) gaps for the sikaflex. I then went to a timber supplier in Richards Bay, picked out a good golden brown plank of Iroko and had them cut and plane smooth ten pieces 2 ¼-inches (55mm) wide by ¼-inch (6mm) thick.

Beginning in the center and working outwards, I cut the Iroko strips to length, coated their bottom surface with a slightly thickened epoxy, and laid them down along the pencil marks. To seat the strips properly in the epoxy, I set heavy cans of paint on them. Unfortunately, this made the strips tend to slide off their marks, so as I put down each piece I temporarily tacked it in place with nails in the gaps along their edges. I put no screws or nails directly into the Iroko to avoid defacing the surface in any way. Before the epoxy fully cured, I dug the excess epoxy out of the gaps with a flat blade screwdriver. After the epoxy set, I removed the nails, gave the surface a light sanding, dusted it off, and cleaned the strip gaps with acetone.

Before filling the gaps with black sikaflex, I carefully ran a line of masking tape around all the edges. Using a caulking gun I filled the gaps with sikaflex and then leveled it all with a putty knife. The tape was pulled up and the sealant allowed to dry for a few days. The entire sole was then sanded with an orbital sander using #100 grit paper. To finish the caulking I ran a bead of white 3M 5200 sealant around the outside edges of the cabin sole.

The final job was to install a flush ring latch at the forward end of each hatch board and fit latch catches into the fixed cabin sole. The opposite ends of the boards were held in place by brass retaining plates screwed into the bottom of the boards so that they overhang to catch under the fixed sole. The boards are now fully secured and cannot get loose to become dangerous missiles during a knockdown at sea.

The job cost me approximately US$100 and took about 35 hours to complete. The only upkeep it needs is an occasional scrubbing down with soapy water and going over with a rag dipped in teak oil or equivalent. The results were better than I had hoped for. The new sole feels very secure underfoot and looks first class.

(Ed. note: Checkout ATOM's new sole in the Project Showcase)