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   Making Seats into Beds

By Mike Monies - Eufaula, Oklahoma - USA

 

When I made the decision to add seats/flotation tanks to my Laguna I knew I would need floor boards that would lift up and create sleeping platforms.

In the forward cockpit I installed fore and aft seats/flotation tanks with a 19 inch foot well between them. The sides of the footwell are parallel fore and aft so making floor boards was straight forward. I added 3/4 inch by 3/4 inch cleats to the sides of the seat/flotation tanks that would hold the floor boards level with the seat tops.

The floor boards are made out of air dried cypress. I dressed my rough boards down to 7/8 inch thick. Because my stock was random width I made my slats random width to maximize lumber use. I drilled one inch finger holes in the slats that would be at the end of each floor board. Then I took a router with a 1/4 inch round over bit and rounded over the top sides of each slat and around both sides of the one inch finger holes. Then I screwed 3/4 inch by one inch runners to the bottom of each slat with stainless steel screws. No glue is used here. Epoxy does no work well on wood that is to be left unfinished.

FLOORBOARDS OF LAGUNA DOS, IN RAISED POSITION, READY FOR SLEEPING

"The forward cockpit floorboards fill in the space between the two seats to form a large sleeping platform. The aft cockpit floorboards are made in two halves port and starboard. The portside floorboards can be raised up to form a sleeping platform on the portside."

"This was taken as Andrew Linn and I prepared to sleep on board during this year's OBX130."
THE FORWARD COCKPIT FLOORBOARDS ARE MADE IN THREE SECTIONS

"A longer forward section, a 16 inch long center section that can be raised independently to form a rowing seat, and a 12 inch aft section that can be propped up against the center bulkhead to form a footbrace for rowing make up the three piece floorboard system. Here I am cleaning the cockpit to set up my small cot tent that fits in the space."


I made the forward cockpit floor boards in three sections. A sixteen inch section can be used by itself as a rowing seat. A twelve inch section that can be propped against the center bulkhead as a foot brace when rowing and a long section to fill in the remainder of the space.

The aft cockpit floor boards are more complicated. The aft cockpit seat runs port and starboard.

I wanted to create a sleeping platform on the port side. I made two floor boards for the area in front of the seat and one for the area behind. These had to be curved to fit along the side of the boat. Then I installed cleats along the port side of the hull and several other places to hold the floorboards' tops level with the seat top.

After all the sections of floorboards were put together I gave them two coats of teak oil.

The project turned out nice. Flat bottomed boats like the Laguna can make a mess with just a little water sloushing around in the bottom. The floorboards keep your feet dry as well as providing sleeping and rowing platforms.

We sailed both the Everglades Challenge and the Outer Banks event with no motor, the Everglades Challenge does not allow, only sail power, it was optional on the OBX. We used the rowing seat/platform several times on both trips and also used the sleeping platforms which work well. Both trips were very wet rides during parts of sailing and the floorboards kept the water off our feet.

Mike Monies, Laguna Dos

*****

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