# Carolina Skiff Deck and Gunwales



## Fishtex (May 10, 2014)

Absolutely no on the dimensional lumber you are talking about. Way too heavy. If you want to do this correctly some may chime in or go to to https://forums.bateau2.com/viewforum.php?f=10 and post your proposal. 

We don’t throw mass at the task, we use engineering/design. You could use 1/4” real marine grade plywood, (not the shit you buy at a big box) with the right glass layup with epoxy and it will be 75% lighter. If the hull is worthy, epoxy and structural foam core like Divinycell with epoxy or Nidacore is another option. Doing mods like this is fine. 

Epoxy has superior secondary bonding properties over polyester but costs more and I’ve always found it easier to work with. If you’re good on the layup, not using too much resin in the laminate, the cost difference is no big deal. 

The general idea would be a cleat around the perimeter of the inside of the hull near the shear, three layers of biaxial tape over the cleat bonded to the hull. The deck and side decks would be bonded with thickened epoxy to the cleats. Biax tape/epoxy would be used on the cleats to bond the decks to the underside. The decks would be core with glass on either side. Weight and layers determined by core, span, design. The idea would be a seamless transition from your new decks onto the existing rolled gunnel. 

I wouldn’t bond decks on top of the existing rolled edge gunnel as it will likely look like shit. You can get a nice transition if the decks are butting up to that rolled edge supported by the cleat underneath. 

There are some large spans on a CS that big so I’d go light and strong via a good design as I would with anything worth doing. 

Make it look better than production with just a bit more effort. Boatbrains will hopefully chime in with some layup ideas on cloth weight, etc. BTW, you can certainly use polyester resin but I don’t like it for the secondary bonding issues, extra weight that comes with using it with CSM, etc. 

YMMV, good luck...

Put some under gunnel rod holders under those side decks for support and to hold your rods.


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## Guest (Feb 14, 2020)

Ok, I’ll bite. @Fishtex is absolutely dead on! For the front deck, I would use 1” carbon core or divinycell h80 foam. Throw a 3/4”-1” crown in it for structural integrity and free spanning to give the most bang for your buck so to speak. Sink the deck down like fishtex said so it sits flush not proud of the rolled gunnel. For layup, I will need to know actual deck dimensions, but am happy to help!


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## fishnpreacher (Jul 28, 2018)

FWIW, I have a 16ft CS with a factory front and rear decks. They are both made of 3/4 ply, glassed and gelcoat. They are removable, fitting over the gunnels and bolted down. No doubt, they are heavy and probably could save a lot of weight by engineering a permanent deck,flush with the existing gunnels.


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## Blackdog1 (Feb 14, 2020)

Thanks for the replies. Right not the boat has a piece of 4 inch pvc all the way around it that the previous owner installed. Here are a few pictures of kind of the the idea I am leaning towards of anyone has any suggestions or designs. I would like to make the deck come 4 ft back from the bow, it is about 83 inches across at that length and the deck would be about 18 inches from the floor. I think I would like to do something similar to the front piece of the carolina skiff decks with the two large holes so I can store life jackets and such under the deck.


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## Panamakid (Oct 30, 2009)

Use marine ply and epoxy I did a Carolina skiff deck.


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## Panamakid (Oct 30, 2009)

https://www.microskiff.com/attachments/85471c87-7ded-402a-b575-a736b23d4dc4-jpeg.74254/


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## Blackdog1 (Feb 14, 2020)

Panamakid said:


> https://www.microskiff.com/attachments/85471c87-7ded-402a-b575-a736b23d4dc4-jpeg.74254/


What kind of putty/filler did you use where the wood met the fiberglass?


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## Panamakid (Oct 30, 2009)

https://www.microskiff.com/attachments/85471c87-7ded-402a-b575-a736b23d4dc4-jpeg.74254/


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## Panamakid (Oct 30, 2009)

Wood flour and marine epoxy all from boat builder central


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## Snakesurf (Jun 18, 2019)

Don't want to crash the plywood party here but your boat is 100% composite material with no wood. I had a CS with marine plywood and fiberglass front deck and center console. It eventually rotted out and had to be replaced. I pretty much gave the boat away. The hull on these boats will last a long time so I would go with something like Coosa composite board or honeycomb fiberglass panels. The marine plywood is a lot easier to find and is a good material but they have a reason for building the CS without plywood.


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## Fishtex (May 10, 2014)

I agree on going composite for the reasons stated., as a side note,
its not the wood, it’s the polyester resin, it just doesn’t do a great job bonding or sealing to the plywood, and a lot of the ply they used was....well...not very good. The resins were not waterproof and degraded. Polyester resins are hydroscopic so they absorb moisture over time and thus we have delamination.
They never put good marine ply in any production boat unless it sold for a lot of money, and I’m talking a lot of money and really big, like Rybovich big, and they use epoxy. It’s all about the process, good materials and a good process equals quality, change a variable and you get a Bayliner. 

I’d go with composite core, appropriate glass, epoxy resin, and coat the whole interior with Kiwi Grip.

Sipping 1792 Single Barrell, Batch Two in front of a fire.....the fire is critical...as always, YNMV. Good Luck


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