26 Laz floor dimensions

[vizwhiz]

Spent several hours down in the laz today working on a flat floor for it. Does anyone have dimensions for making "support" boards that would follow the contour of the boat bottom but have a flat top for the floorboards?

I wanted to ask before I start trying to make something work...I've looked on the mods, but don't see anyone's dims...somebody's bound to have done it and kept the dimensions, right?

[Doug91mac26s]

I don't have measurements of the floor I currently have in my laz. The one I made has a board that runs not quite the length of the forward bulkhead in there. Just get a scrap piece of plywood, hold it down in there and scribe a line of the contour of the bilge. Do the same with a piece for the aft end. That's the hardest part, getting the contour of the hull.

I sort of have measurement for a floor I made out of PVC, which worked pretty good!

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/modt/in ... ?view=1285

[Sumner]

..somebody's bound to have done it and kept the dimensions, right?

Nope . I did a pretty quick and dirty job...



....but doesn't make much difference as we always have so much in there that you can't see the floor anyway

If you haven't seen it here is our mod...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-38.html

The fuel tank covered a good part of the floor so what I did only covers about 1/2 of it,

Sum

Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[vizwhiz]

I sort of have measurement for a floor I made out of PVC, which worked pretty good!

Doug - that's one of the reasons I asked - I saw this mod (along with others) and when you said you had done one in wood I thought you had surely measured that time!!

Just get a scrap piece of plywood, hold it down in there and scribe a line of the contour of the bilge.

Not sure what you mean by this, because it's the curvy part of the floor that I'm trying to get the contour of, and anything that starts out straight makes it impossible to match the contour...please 'splain!

Nope . I did a pretty quick and dirty job...

That's too funny - the Admiral said "Knowing how detail-oriented Sumner is, he has to have measurements and details about how he built it..."
I'm still laughing about it... Anyway, thanks, and yes, I was looking at your mod also which is why I was hoping that someone had kept some measurements!

Well, I like the board running across the forward bulkhead in there - that's probably going to happen for supporting the floor on that side - easy enough.
I'll have to work out the transom side in similar fashion - the bump for the rudder post gets in the way of using one piece of wood there, and that board has to be angled on the bottom as you get out toward the ends also because it won't be high above the floor.
Supporting the middle, well...I suppose I'll just have to play with this one a little.

And NO, I probably won't take dimensions either!

[Doug91mac26s]

Not sure what you mean by this, because it's the curvy part of the floor that I'm trying to get the contour of, and anything that starts out straight makes it impossible to match the contour...please 'splain!

Okay, here goes. If you don't already have one, get yourself a pencil compass. They usually have them at Lowes and Home Depot, where all the woodworking tools are, really inexpensive. You can even use a school supply one.

Others have made really nice floors in their lazarette's. But assuming you want to make one like mine, with no permanent attachment points, which just sits in there, and can easily be removed, here's what I did.

For the wood strip that runs port/starboard along the laz bulkhead, take a piece of scrap plywood, thin stuff is perfect. Or you can start first with cardboard, then go to wood. You want to make a template, trial and error here, that's why scrap wood. Doing projects like this gives you a lot of exercise, climbing in and out of the boat, over and over, and in/out of the laz is especially fun. I'm 5'11", 220lbs., it's a test of flexibility, like I said, trial and error.

Cut the length as wide as you want to make the floor, The longer you go the higher the floor will be, so bear that in mind.

I just wanted mine to provide some considerable useable dry floor space, and provide enough room below to install my transducer and bilge pump.

Cut the board maybe about 12 inches wide. Cut the corners off on one side, so initially when you hold the wood up against the laz bulkhead, it will sit a little lower. In other words, the sharp corners will not be holding the wood piece too high. It doesn't matter at this point how high, just cut two corners off enough so the piece sits as low as possible. (hope that makes sense) Next, use the compass, starting at the lowest spot, middle of bilge. Adjust the compass, so the pencil tip is on the lowest edge of the wood, and the metal point is at the lowest spot in the bilge. Then carefully scribe a line on the wood, keeping the compass fairly vertical, and don't move the setting, keeping the pointy metal tip following the bilge bottom, drawing a line all the way to the sides.

Then just cut it out with a jig saw and check your fit in the boat. Depending on how picky you are, you might want to make another scribe line, same fashion, but making very fine adjustments. This time you may want to use a belt sander to remove material up to your new scribe line. Follow this process until it fits to your liking.

Now you have a template to use to make a cut line on more expensive wood, and it will come out perfect. You may even decide to not have the whole bottom edge touch the bilge bottom, perhaps you'll want to have maybe four spots touch like legs. Whatever you decide, that template will provide you with a custom fit.

My feeling is to have the piece follow the contour of the bottom as much as possible. The reason is that when you put a lot of stuff in there, like anchors, etc., the weight will be distributed over more area, no focused pressure points.

Follow the same method for the aft piece.

The rest of the construction process is up to you, how you decide to bridge across fore and aft, etc. The one I made has a center board that can be removed to gain access to the bilge pump and transducer.

Maybe once you get into this, you'll come up with a better design, please post pic's!

Hope this helps!

I bet you won't save measurements either.

http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d64/d ... azarrette/

If you want to have more fun make a storage insert for your v-berth. I have pic's of that too in my photobucket. I did save paper templates for that. Unfortunately I loaned them to someone, who didn't return them, and I've lost touch with.

http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d64/d ... 20Storage/

If you view the albums as a slide show you can see comments I made on many of the pictures, explaining stuff.

[vizwhiz]

Okay...I get it...you put the board/cardboard up on the bulkhead and then used the compass as a "follower" to follow the shape of the bottom of the laz while scribing that line on your wood...then you cut that shape out and move it down...makes total sense...thanks! I hadn't really thought about making a follower like that...great idea! I agree with the other stuff about multiple points and/or sufficient contact with the bottom of the laz...haven't decided exactly what I want to do with that yet.
Thanks for the help! I'll take on the v-berth...um...later!

[Steve K]

Vis,

They gave you the good info on this. I did about the same thing, using cardboard.

I also used this same method to trace the bottom of the hull on a couple boats, to fabricate some stands for them. I think there's a couple pics of the Catalina in the pics link I posted, where it is sitting on these stands. I always thought I might build some real form fitting trailer bunks for the D boat this way.

I did the laz floor a couple weeks ago. I also put in a PVC cockpit drain line and got rid of that nasty black hose (that was clear at one time) that runs through the middle of the laz.
While I was at it I got rid of that stupid tee setup for the engine well drain. I used a hole saw to cut a hole through the transom just above my laz deck and directly below the engine well drain. Then I epoxied in a PVC elbow. Now there is a 3 or 4 inch hose connecting the two and any water that gets in the engine well drains right out the back.

After climbing in and out of there about a thousand times, My knees are, just today, starting to work right again
Steve K.