Quicky Floorboards

by Bob Smalser, Seabeck, WA

These are incredibly important because they often become the major visual element in an open boat, yet they are done at the end of the project and frequently in a hurry.

I'm no different. I am rapidly running out of time on this project and need to move on to the next one. I was going to install sprung floorboards…boards that nicely match the curve of the boat bottom, but that would have taken four or so days of spiling, even at a commercial pace. Instead, I scribe-fitted the edge boards and built the floorboards in place in the boat in two long days.

I cut the ½x¾" white oak floors to fit individually and affixed them to the bottom using double-faced tape, so no measurements would need transfer to the bench.

Then I just fitted each ¼x3" floorboard from outside in. Curves were scribed a la a kitchen cabinet against an unplumb wall, the drawn curves faired using a fairing batten on the bench, and taken straight from the bench to the bandsaw and block plane to the screwguns in the boat.

The floorboards were resawed out of a 7BF, 8/4 plank of purpleheart I had on hand….and I didn't have quite enough…

…so instead of buying more, I filled in using some of the white oak I had left out of the three short timbers I resawed to make the other framing parts of the boat.

This foam tape is powerful, so you don't need much…work a thin prybar under the oak floors…not the thin floorboards…to pry your work loose.

Soaked in teak oil, these will serve for a long time and look okay in the dory.