Now we can ski!

Video at the bottom if you’re like me and don’t like to read. LOL

Cutting a hole in the boat floor

So we worked so hard to get the rotten floor out of our boat, and now we want to put a big hole in the middle. The original floor did have a ski locker, but when we got the boat, the rotted floor was covered with plywood. We did want to have the locker for storage of gear and not just have toys strung all over the deck of the boat. 

Make it strong

Since the Ski Locker was going to be made from the pieces I cut from the floor and we wanted it to be one piece and strong. We first held the ski locker hatch with wood, we thought it was going to stay there, but It wasn’t very pretty. We then used fiberglass cloth on the hatch, with many layers on both sides making it much stronger than a normal piece of plywood.

We also had to add a strong lip the ski locker hatch could lay on. Since there were no stringers directly under the lip edge we added plywood from the lip start all the way to the stringer. It was resined and screwed to add more support, it does have to hold my weight when I walk on it, I’m not a small guy.

Ski locker hardware installed

Not to fancy, budget-friendly latch on the ski locker hatch. Thought we were going to make it fancy with hinges, hydraulics, and cool stuff, then we think, would it hold up and be easy to fix later. This had to not fly out when underway, but be simple and cheap to put in, this is what we came up with.

Instead of a hinge that could break, we thought we would just add a catch that would go under the lip. This was not only easy and cheap to make, but with the other side of the ski locker latched, it was not moving. It also did not have to be strong, only upward forces would be on this, the weight was supported by the lip around the ski locker hatch.

All in all this job went very quickly, the longest part was allowing the resin to fully cure. The latch we used was not expensive at all, it was flush to the floor and very adjustable for different thicknesses of latching situations. When we lift the latch handle up on the ski locker, it was very easy to unlock and lift out of the way, exposing the bilge with plenty of room for skies “Probably Beer”.

After everything was done it was time to relax and admire the work we have done. Cleaning up can wait as we bask in our small triumph, being one step closer to this boat hitting the water.

Tools & Supplies Used:

• Milwaukee drill: https://amzn.to/2yyMlbo
• Ryobi Jig Saw: https://amzn.to/2D65SDU
• DEWALT Orbit Sander: https://amzn.to/2PT5LOE
• TotalBoat 5:1 Epoxy Resin Kits: https://amzn.to/2Sf5dnZ

What’s Left From this Entry

• Boat Bumper Trim
• Windows
• Paint
• Start Engine
• Navigation
• Seats
• Marine Radio
• Rear Speakers
• Things I forgot

Boat Restoration Blogs

https://www.chrisdoeswhat.com/category/diy/boat-restoration/

Commonsense provided by my love Danielle Redding