Replacing gel coat deck with white oak , question.

[Wind459]

Have 26 ft kenner Privateer, the deck is soft, and I need to re-core a lot of it this winter, and wanted to upgrade it to a wood deck at the same time. My gameplan is to not use screws to fasten it but some other medium. My question is, do I have to do anything with the gel coat top layer before laying it down? Is this process outlined anywhere ? I've seen tons of synthetic upgrades but never a true wood conversion. Please only post how to do it, not "why" " teak is hell to maintain" or any of the other " oh dear god its wood run away cause I'm afraid of maintenance", I didn't buy a boat because its a logical choice, adding wood is just furthering my decent into madness.

Ps: Im going with white oak as it is wayyy cheaper and on par with durability (yes I know its hefty). I have a good mill near me that has a good supply of custom woods that I plan on asking to cut the planks I need. Do you guys know how thick a plank should generally be? Pic of the boat below.

[softdown]

I'm only reaching here because I was once a cabinet maker and knew my woods at the time.

Is your old coring plywood or balsa or? I might consider something that would surpass original deck strength by ~50% because you will likely lose some of the original engineering features when you redo it. Thats my stab in the dark anyway.

[Sailmonkey]

I re-read the original post....then my comment became useless.

Sorry