This article will help to determine the different types of flooring on the boat bottom for those who ask: "Floorboards - what is it?". This is the flooring - rigid floor or not, folding or not, rack or not, with an H-shaped profile or another, for an inflatable boat or catamarans with a rigid deck ... The material also provides a lot of additional information on this issue.
Payols
What it is? It is partially or completely wooden removable flooring. It is placed at the bottom of the boat or installed on the deck of the cargo hold in the tiller and any other ship and ship premises. On the deck of the ship there is also the opportunity to see the floor. Until the seventies, they were used on old ships. For the safety of products, so as not to become damp, removable floorboards are installed on the decks of the pantries. What is it now has become clearer. What else are they for? To make the bottom even for freedom of movement inside the boat or ship so that feet, food and clothing are not wet if water collects on the floor.
Removable floorboards can still be found in refrigerated holds to this day. What is it - previously everyone knew who in one way or another came across water movements. Decks of cargo holds are covered with payols in order not to spoil diverse cargoes in close proximity. Oil is spilled, or even just condensation. All liquids accumulate on the floor under the grate, without touching the rest of the load, and as they accumulate, flow into the bilge of the hold. But today we are not talking about ships, but less bulky ships, and floorboards for the boat will be considered.
Flooring
The flooring on the bottom can be stationary, but you cannot call them floorboards. This name is characteristic only for fully or partially removable flooring. Stationary open decks covered with wooden or metal flooring, which cannot be removed, are not payol. Only removable and not necessarily wooden. Flooring for boats are different. It can even be a rubber inflatable floor.
For example, in a PVC boat, the bottom is the most important part. They come with a stretch deck without deck, with an inflatable floor, with deck flooring, with a rigid floor and a rigid deck of an inflatable catamaran. Since these are very different configurations of the bottoms, it is necessary to consider separately - each type has advantages and disadvantages.
The choice
Choosing a removable bottom is necessary depending on how and where exactly the floorboard of the inflatable boat will be used. Most often, special marine plywood is chosen as the material for such a bottom. It is produced using sophisticated technology, and it is protected from getting wet. Some PVC boats can withstand aluminum floorboards. They look beautiful and neat, in everything else they have few advantages over plywood. But the disadvantages are very significant.
Firstly, the metal makes such noise during operation that it completely scares away the fish, while the motor significantly enhances any vibration. Nevertheless, almost all expensive boats are equipped with aluminum floorboards, which not only rattle, but also slide underfoot. Marine plywood in this regard is not an example better: durable, isolates sound and does not slip. Sometimes, not the entire flooring is made from it, but only one central section. Many make such a floorboard for a boat with their own hands.
Cheap boats
Small boats are often sold without decking at all - this is the basic equipment. On the floor they just have a layer of PVC glued to the "bagel" on the sides. It is impossible to stand in such boats. It is extremely inconvenient that all sharp objects in equipment should be used extremely carefully, since the bottom is easily damaged.
Even those who fish in small ponds, it’s not safe to go on such a boat. The only convenient thing is that a small boat made of PVC is easily packed in a backpack and can be transported anywhere on the back. Without flooring, it naturally becomes not so heavy. Thus, the fishermen will have access to the most remote reservoirs, where you need to get off-road, through forests, but there the fish are not frightened.
Inflatable floor
This type of flooring can be said to be antique. However, technology got here too: a modern floorboard inflatable boat (air deck) even hard flooring is not inferior in convenience and quality. Of course, the attitude to the inflatable floor should be much more prudent, careful, which is not necessary if aluminum or marine plywood is underfoot. The main thing is not to step on hooks and other sharp objects, so as not to pierce the inflatable floor. Nevertheless, the quality of the modern floor for a boat made of PVC is at a very high level: it is not erased with feet and any heavy objects, it is protected from basic mechanical damage. In addition, the dimensions are compact when compared with a hard floor.
The boat weighs less, but not by much, since all this is a modern strengthening of the fabric, its increased density with the weight of plywood is quite comparable. And large inflatable boats, which are packed, like small ones, always in one bag, become almost impossible to carry by hand. The sizes of floorboards can be different, hide underneath the entire bottom or just a small area for stability - there are many thousands of models of boats and floorboards for them, all differ in something. But washing a solid inflatable floor is much more inconvenient. The removable plywood flooring can be easily washed by simply removing and lowering it into the water separately from the rest of the boat.
Rail
The removable rack for inflatable boats is excellent for light and small models. These are sheets of boat plywood glued from the bottom side with PVC fabric. Such an inflatable boat floor is full of benefits. The rack and pinion flooring can be easily decomposed and folded; it has a light weight.
You don’t have to take the payol out of the boat at all, then when the cylinders are deflated, the whole boat rolls around the rails, and a rather compact package is obtained. For the assembly and disassembly of such a design will take no more than a quarter of an hour. However, it lacks rigidity, and this does not allow the use of such a convenient flooring on large models of PVC boats.
Catamaran
Catamarans usually have a stretch deck. This is tantamount to the complete absence of any kind of flooring, since it is impossible to stand on the tension deck. However, most often this is not necessary on alloys: equipment and other things are tied on a tension floor, and people sit on top of balloons. In addition to the inflatable deck, any damage is unlikely: the design features of such a vessel are such that the deck is very high above the water.
But on the Masterkat catamarans they use special rigid floorboards that are larger than any boat. They are made of non-slip marine plywood and can fold in half. Despite the fact that this entire deck consists of many sections (75 centimeters - central and 82.5 centimeters - sections at the edges), assembling floorboards is quite simple. The rigidity of this design of the catamaran is achieved through longitudinal pipes or cylinders, so additional clutches such a deck is not necessary. The plywood sheets are pulled together with the frame and with each other with a special sling, and water merges into the gap. It is convenient to wash such a deck.
Rigid and folding boat deck
On boats more than three meters in size, hard flooring is most often placed, the most common for inflatable boats. Unlike the rack, it closes the bottom entirely, providing rigidity of the entire structure and full protection of the bottom of the PVC. This is the kind of flooring needed in boats with an inflatable keel, which abuts on the top just against the flooring. A boat with an aluminum floor - solid and rigid - can freely glide on the wave.
Foldable boat flooring is convenient because it is quickly inserted, folding out like a book. Its biggest advantage is the integrity of the structure, but it does not provide the necessary rigidity. Stingers, designed to increase the rigidity of an inflatable boat, do not correct this situation: when the boat glides, the inflatable keel cuts through the wave and experiences a shock load, even inflatable balloons do not compensate for it. Payol-book makes glide path on the wave difficult. The thickness of plywood in such designs is usually 9 millimeters. Sheets are fastened with aluminum profiles and glued with PVC fabric. Many anglers and hunters make such a floorboard for a boat with their own hands.
Hard floor H-profile
This type of bottom is for economy class PVC boats; in production it is cheap and affordable for everyone. These are sheets of plywood inserted one into the other. The difference from a folding floor is that this design does not have integrity. But it is very good if combined with the stingers, thus increasing rigidity significantly.
The H-shaped profile is exactly the minus of this type of bottom, since it is much thinner than usual, with a smaller area of contact with the plywood sheets, which means that the load on the edges of the plywood is significantly increased. The edges do not have a special metal edging, since they are directly inserted into the profile. To distinguish an H-shaped floorboard from a regular one, you need to compare the strips of aluminum at the junction. The plywood is the same - 9 millimeters, but the strip is much thinner.
Hard floor and stingers
This type of flooring is the most common for expensive boat models. The plywood thickness is not 9, but 12 millimeters, the sheets are connected using special grooves. Aluminum edging already with increased contact area. This flooring is much stronger than a payol-book or with an n-shaped profile. In combination with stingers, a hard floor makes the boat almost a monolith in the structure, even very strong waves do not knock it off the planing.
The maximum effect is achieved by special reinforcement of the transom, which provides both rigidity and reduced load on the transom, distributing it around the bottom. At the stinger junction points, the flooring is reinforced with aluminum to protect the edges of the plywood from any damage. Despite the advantages, stingers providing rigidity are also capable of damaging the boat where they bulge. Manufacturers even strengthen the places of friction with an additional layer of PVC fabric.
Small rowing boat
It is good to have a comfortable single boat for rafting on the river, and for fishing in small ponds. But it’s bad that such a boat is not provided for in the manufacture of floorboards. The weight and dimensions, of course, are reduced, making it convenient for transportation, but the advantages of having a rigid flooring are much more significant than the advantages of delivery.
The fisherman’s bait bucket is constantly overturned at the slightest movement, under the oars the boat goes extremely hard, rowing requires tremendous effort. Factory-made flooring for such a boat does not exist, because many fishermen are familiar with making floorboards on their own.
Materials
Waterproof (bakelite) plywood is too heavy for a small boat, and buying it is not easy. Therefore, ordinary six-millimeter plywood needs to be treated from moisture, sawed exactly to size right in the store (in Leroy-Merlin, for example, there is such a service) in order to carry it conveniently. No need to be afraid of its subtleties. It is checked by many - a sheet of six-millimeter plywood, coupled with other sheets, except that it will not allow jumping on itself. And standing in such a boat - even with a payol, even without it - is quite dangerous.
Protecting plywood from water is a fairly simple matter: the mass of modern impregnations and varnishes perfectly cope with it. The usual impregnation, on top of the yacht varnish in two layers - and the destruction for several years will not be the slightest even at the edges of the plywood. In addition, you need to buy several brushes, a roller and a spatula to smooth the fabric, as well as glue for PVC. It is better not to rigidly connect the sheets into a floorboard - assembly, disassembly are difficult, the mass increases. It is better to glue the sheets with PVC fabric. The glue and lacquer on the plywood are perfectly combined. The cost of materials did not total more than a thousand rubles.
How to do it
The clearance with which the floorboard enters the boat should be less than five millimeters, since the plywood is thin. Pulling the fabric across the sides of the inflated boat, you can measure the distance needed to cut the floor. Minus two millimeters is the required width of the plywood sheet.
The length is measured exactly along the length of the bottom of the boat. To avoid any errors with the accuracy of repeating contours on the bow and stern, it is better to make a cardboard template first. Further, according to the configuration, it is necessary to calculate how many sheets the payol for the boat will consist of, so that it can easily be assembled and put in the car.
Lacquer
Next, you need to process the side joints and corners of the plywood, round off all the ends adjacent to the boat and dock, and then glued together with a PVC fabric, make all the corners along the radius. There should not be a single sharp edge or corner, because it is easy to damage the fabric of the boat itself, so you need to process all the edges with fine sandpaper or sandpaper on the fabric.
Then plywood is processed without gaps on all sides with varnish. Drying lasts several days, after which, for better adhesion, the surface is again cleaned from all sides, leaks and other imperfections are removed. The second coating is already done clean. Two layers is enough. You can make the floor painted, but you need to keep in mind that the light less attracts the sun, it will not be so hot. A few more days the varnish will dry, after which it is already possible to start gluing plywood sheets.
Gluing
The industrial hair dryer, which can be used to heat the glue line and remove the solvent, helps a lot in this matter. Bonding is carried out strictly according to the instructions. Plywood sheets are arranged so that you can fold the flooring "accordion". For this you need to lay out plywood accordingly. When working with glue for PVC, the correction of parts is impossible, so you need to pre-mark all the positions with a pencil.
After connecting the parts, roll the fabric with a roller or spatula, remove air bubbles. When the flooring is glued, it is impossible to test it immediately on the water. For at least three days, the glue should stand and dry completely. As a result, the payol is obtained weighing about three to four kilograms, the mass of the whole set does not increase too much. It remains to wish a pleasant and successful holiday to those who were not afraid of difficulties. It’s not so difficult to build floorboards for a boat, but it’s very exciting.