Dinghy Floor

[scarlet]

I have a RIB and the floor is slanted, and slippery when wet. With me being a klutz, I'm tired of slipping and falling getting in. I am thinking about adding a raised floor to give it a nice solid flat surface to step into. I'm thinking that I can just add some aluminum slats to the bottom and put a hard surface on top of that . Anyone have any suggestion what I could use for the actual flooring? I thought of using marine plywood, but I think it would be pretty heavy. Any great ideas out there?

[Orion Jim]

How about just coating the floor with non-skid such as Kiwi Grip. Easy and cheap....

[JPA Cate]

You can buy rolls of sticky-back non-skid from most chandleries. That's what we use on our dinghy seat, that one tends to step down onto. I'd keep the slant, it helps the water drain towards the stern.

Ann

[marshmat]

Kiwi Grip is good stuff. You can make the non-skid texture as gentle or as aggressive as you like just by changing how hard you push the roller as you paint it on.


My 15-footer has about 20° of deadrise on the outer V; we used coarse silica sand mixed with Interlux enamel as the non-skid for that. I don't think anyone's ever slipped while standing on the 20*° portion. But it's a four-step process (prime, paint & sprinkle sand, vacuum, paint again) that takes a few days. Kiwi Grip is much easier & faster.



I think you'll end up regretting the extra weight if you try to add slats or extra decking.

[RaymondR]

It's a pain in the butt having to stand on non level floors even if they have non slip.

Make a false floor out of epoxy sealed 1/8" or 3/16" marine ply, drill some holes in it, and pour 2 pack polyurethane foam through the holes until it becomes fully supported. Then glass the whole mess over with light woven FG roving and pour a bit of fine sand over it as anti skid.

[LittleWing77]

Hi Scarlet,

Glad to see you're hanging in there!

There was a thread about a year ago from AmandaK in Vancouver who owns a large Newfoundlander whose bum was always getting wet in her dinghy, so she was looking for flooring recommendations:

Keeping Dog's Butt Off Dinghy Floor after Rainfall:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ll-222781.html

Post #8 talks about using sections of Dri-Deck - which might be an idea for you...? but there are other ideas in the thread as well.

Happy New Year wherever the winds may take you in 2021,
Warmly,
LittleWing77

[scarlet]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Hi Scarlet,

Glad to see you're hanging in there!

There was a thread about a year ago from AmandaK in Vancouver who owns a large Newfoundlander whose bum was always getting wet in her dinghy, so she was looking for flooring recommendations:

Keeping Dog's Butt Off Dinghy Floor after Rainfall:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ll-222781.html

Post #8 talks about using sections of Dri-Deck - which might be an idea for you...? but there are other ideas in the thread as well.

Happy New Year wherever the winds may take you in 2021,
Warmly,
LittleWing77

I read that thread! I kept thinking that her post was useless without photos because I was dying to see what that newfundland in a dinghy looked like! those are HUGE dogs!!!

[Muaddib1116]

It seems like the best thing to do would be to sell your current rib and find a well priced double floored used rib to buy.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by scarlet

I read that thread! I kept thinking that her post was useless without photos because I was dying to see what that newfundland in a dinghy looked like! those are HUGE dogs!!!

I know, eh?

Growing up in Quebec, my friend's family had a horse farm and they had 3 or 4 of them - so we were always accompanied wherever we went by a herd of goofy, loveable Newfies who were bigger than each of us kids! I think her mum may've thought they provided good protection, as their personalities seemed to be similar to Swiss St. Bernard rescue dogs...

Here's a picture of a woman on pinterest with her Newfie sorta-kinda sitting on her lap. Wonder how long she was able to stand that...?

https://images.app.goo.gl/TBwgGxceqCoW3Hyf8

LittleWing77