Replacing cabin sole with starboard

[John34]

In process of taking up my teak laminate cabin floor and was thinking of putting down starboard or similar product, would not have to worry about any water doing damage and could put down a nice rug over it.
Any one ever done it? thanks in advance.

[colemj]

Starboard is heavy, expensive, flexible and very slippery. Doesn't seem like any of those qualities would be good for a cabin sole. Can you solve the water ingress problem instead? Maybe epoxy/glass encapsulate plywood and then paint? For the cost of the starboard, you could use synthetic teak/holly. We have that and it looks exactly like wood, only it is plastic.

Mark

[Roy M]

Plywood, sealed with epoxy then painted with nonskid is an inexpensive and attractive solution. It has lasted thirty-five years on my own boat. Now, that I am overhauling and preparing to go cruising, I am replacing the floorboards with stringers of rectangular aluminum tubing and the soles with 1/2" honeycomb covered with epoxy/fiberglass/paint/nonskid. A typical floor section has gone from 20 pounds to 2. The replacement will compensate for the refrigerator and freezer I am adding to the boat.

[S/V Alchemy]

I like that very much.

[JPA Cate]

A lot of people do use carpet. However, I don't really like it on a sea going boat. I guess it made a too big impression on me when seeing salty, mouldy carpets hung out to dry, heavy, falling back into the ocean, and someone not the owner diving to recover it for them. Once salty, it will always be damp.

However, some friends of ours have carpet in the center of the saloon only, and it has worked well for them.

Ann