Bobo is a 1986 S2 9.1 sailboat. It is very well made and still going strong after more than 30 years. But the original teak and holly plywood sole was in rough shape.
The cabin sole would be called a floor in a house. Floors in a boat are structural cross-members in the bilge. The sole is what you walk on inside to boat. I decided to replace it. On close inspection I could see it would be a difficult process as the plywood sole extended under the bunks and other furniture in places. Cutting it out was a possibility, but would require tools and skills I didn’t have.
After some research I discovered Lonseal flooring. It is a high quality sheet vinyl with embedded color and texture. It is about 1/8″ thick so I determined to place it over the existing plywood. It could be glued down, but I used heavy duty double sided carpet tape.
It comes in 72″ width. I measured the floor in Bobo carefully, and determined that I would need 9 linear feet. This came to nearly 500 US. Plywood is cheaper, but would have needed varnishing. I paid up and I’m glad I did. You need to leave a small gap at the edges as the material expands in the heat. I was able to do some final trimming in place using a straight edge and trim knife. I used transverse strip between panels as shown below. Getting a perfect end to end match is tricky, but the plain transverse pieces mask any slight misalignment.
How is it when it gets wet…is it slippery ?
MS
Not bad. The surface is matte and slightly soft. Definitely less slippery than the original varnished wood.