Anyone create FRP Board and Polystyrene sandwich for decking.

[fwman1]

Yes, it is there under the Hydro-turf.

 

[fwman1]

A bit more progress.

 

[fwman1]

Ok guys and gals. It was a long time getting on the water, but well worth it. The new casting deck works fantastic, and is solid as a rock. This is my first bass on the upgraded Alumacraft 1436. Topwater off a deep point! A great way to start the season.
I only lost about half a mile an hour on my top speed, but think that is due to my battery moving back to behind the front seat. I'm looking at adding a 60AH Lithium under the casting deck to regain that space that it now takes up in the center of the boat. The Minn Kota Edge 45 is great. I really prefer the hand control over the foot unit on this size rig.

If anyone wants to give this a shot I have well over half of the Epoxy I purchased for the project. I can make a deal!

Thanks for tuning in!

 

[PriceTR24speed]

Ok guys and gals. It was a long time getting on the water, but well worth it. The new casting deck works fantastic, and is solid as a rock. This is my first bass on the upgraded Alumacraft 1436. Topwater off a deep point! A great way to start the season.
I only lost about half a mile an hour on my top speed, but think that is due to my battery moving back to behind the front seat. I'm looking at adding a 60AH Lithium under the casting deck to regain that space that it now takes up in the center of the boat. The Minn Kota Edge 45 is great. I really prefer the hand control over the foot unit on this size rig.

If anyone wants to give this a shot I have well over half of the Epoxy I purchased for the project. I can make a deal!

Thanks for tuning in!
View attachment 114892

One reason I want the elevated deck is for storage underneath. How do you think the material would work if you made cut outs and used removed material as hatches like you would with ply?

 

[fwman1]

I think that it could work well with some additional supporting structure. My goal was to have as little supporting structure underneath as I could get away with. It is all built with 2" angle of 1/16" aluminum from Lowes. Very light! I actually believe I have more than double what I need. After using the deck, I believe a perimeter support with a single center support would have been fine. The strength come from both shear and compressibility being very limited. That being said, the support structure adds very little weight to the boat.

I can remove two bolts and the rotate two aluminum tabs and remove the entire deck in under a minute. It only sits on the minimal framework, as you can see on the prior pages of this thread. If you wanted to compartmentalize the deck to have easily accessible storage, you'd just need to provide the supports under the cutouts to prevent shear forces being able to accumulate at the cutouts.

I think the more difficult engineering would be coming up with a satisfactory hinging system. The thickness of the composite comes into play here. I'd be more inclined to use some sort of twisting lock tab under the support structure of removable panels. An attached strap hinge would probably be the simplest way to go. You could drill a 1" hole in the material and epoxy in a dowel to support the twist lock tab mechanism.

Just some rambling. There is a lot of flexibility here. I didn't mention this material adds flotation to the boat.
There is easily over 2 square feet of flotation added to the boat between the deck and the center walk area supports. Always nice to have.