Laying the Deck Questions

[76SeaRay]

Worked on the front of the floor area but ran out of urethane foam to fill the large chamber on the left in the picture. I either miscalculated or didn't get the full expansion I expected. I went ahead and installed the plugs where I had the foam in place. I used the 16lb kit of 2lb density to this point and ordered another 16lb kit today as I need to finish the large chamber and will have more to do in the forward area where I have to yet put in the new floor and stringers in the bow.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Miscalculating the amount of foam seems about par for the course! Sounds like you did well given the challenges with temps, etc. Nice work!

 

[76SeaRay]

Thanks. On the big chamber on the right of the picture across from the one I still need to do, the foam didn't seem to fill evenly and I had to drill the extra hole in the middle between the ones on the ends. I had to add more foam through that hole to fill in around the gaps that didn't fill completely. I had to do multiple pours so maybe that is why it didn't expand evenly. I also started by pouring in two quarts in the "downhill" hole then pouring the rest from the "uphill" holes so I guess that could have caused the uneven filling and gaps. When the additional foam comes in, I will pour from the uphill hole only on the remaining large chamber and try to pour larger batches.

 

[76SeaRay]

Got more floatation foam in and filled the other large cavity so now on to finishing the stringers in the front. That means routing the hoses and wiring for the gas tank and the water tank. The water tank is on the port side and wires run over the front of the gas tank to the starboard side. Below is a test fit picture with the new gas tank.

I am trying to decide how to cover the fuel tank. The tank is a 60 gallon belly tank (V bottom). The new tank will have rubber strips supporting it against the hull bottom and stringer sides. It also has 4 mounting tabs on the sides. The old tank had floatation foam around it for support and over the top. The old flooring as supported by L brackets on the stringers and the floatation foam on top of the tank. The whole floor was covered with fiberglass and not removable without cutting the glass. I planned to put 1/2 inch plywood over the tank but may have room to go with 3/4 inch plywood for better load strength. I will have access holes over the hose connections on both ends of the tank. The original design had a teak cover/step over the hose plumbing in the front

So a few questions come to mind:

1) Should I make the whole floor over the tank removable which means fiberglass it separate from the whole floor?
2) Should I stay with 1/2 inch plywood for the cover flooring but put strips on top of the tank for support?
3) Should I try (if enough vertical space) to put aluminum angle cross bars under the cover floor for more support?

 

[Chris1956]

You likely want your fuel tank fuel pickup in the stern. Otherwise, when you plane with a near empty tank, she will suck air.

Also fuel fills are very often in the stern area.

 

[76SeaRay]

Thanks for the thoughts. The fuel pickup is in the rear (kind of hard to see the fitting in the picture). As to the fuel fill, I had the new tank built the same as the original design which had the fuel fill amidships on the starboard side.