New Deck and Decks Beams on 20 ft Offshore Model
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:09 pm
Hello Dockside members. I am looking for some advice and or suggestions on redoing the front deckbeams and deck on a recently acquired 1962 20 ft Thompson Offshore 1000 model with an outboard. It came with the original Evinrude 1962 75 HP Starflite.
I will detail my questions and you can then click on my website of
www.accentart.ca/boat.html
and see the photos that I have just taken of the boat. The front deck has been removed and this weekend I am levelling the boat with proper supports under the stern area and putting a proper supports under the bow area.
I would love to make contact with anyone who has an OFFSHORE 20 model of a year close to 1962. From my examination I have determined that the deck beams and the bow hatch were constucted off the boat in some sort of jig and then they were lifted in place and fastened to the gunwales.
The ends of the deck beams were fastened to a 3/8” 5 ply 4” wide plywood strip with the outer edge of the deck beams cut at the angle of the sloping hull at the top lapstrake. Screws were driven into the ends of the deckbeams from the outside of the 3/8” plywood. Then the whole section was set down on the foredeck area. Shims were then slipped in between the ribs and the 3/8” plywood to line up the assembled section and screws were driven in through the plywood outward into the ribs. Of 16 ribs, 10 required filler pieces and on the starboard side each rib has a filler and on the port side about ½ needed filler pieces and each was a different thickeness. You can easily see these filler pieces in the looking forward starboard side photos. When you look at the photos of the boat looking aft from the bow you can see how this “deck hatch” assembly would “float” in the forward area and could be shimmed up to make sure it appeared level and lined up to the “eye”
First I think this was a rather poor way to construct the deck and attach the deckbeams to the hull, but time was money and the way they did it made it fast and could be done by someone with basic woodworking skills. My thought is to put in all new deckbeams and fasten them directly to the top lapstrake and fasten through from the outside of the hull. A inner gunwale would likely be required running forward to the bow and the deckbeams would be notched at the outer edge to fasten to it and to the top lapstrake plank. It will be more work to angle, taper and notch the end of the deck beams, but it should give me a much stronger deck that one can walk on without trepidation. To my eye the starboard forward area has “fallen” a bit, possibly from the deckbeams pulling away from the hull on that side.
Was this method a common way to attach the decks on the Thompson boats or just exclusive to the OFFSHORE models?
To those of you who have done this before you can see that this is a “project”. The hull planks and ribs appear to be in above average condition for a boat this age.
Your comments and advice would be appreciated
www.accentart.ca/boat.html
I will detail my questions and you can then click on my website of
www.accentart.ca/boat.html
and see the photos that I have just taken of the boat. The front deck has been removed and this weekend I am levelling the boat with proper supports under the stern area and putting a proper supports under the bow area.
I would love to make contact with anyone who has an OFFSHORE 20 model of a year close to 1962. From my examination I have determined that the deck beams and the bow hatch were constucted off the boat in some sort of jig and then they were lifted in place and fastened to the gunwales.
The ends of the deck beams were fastened to a 3/8” 5 ply 4” wide plywood strip with the outer edge of the deck beams cut at the angle of the sloping hull at the top lapstrake. Screws were driven into the ends of the deckbeams from the outside of the 3/8” plywood. Then the whole section was set down on the foredeck area. Shims were then slipped in between the ribs and the 3/8” plywood to line up the assembled section and screws were driven in through the plywood outward into the ribs. Of 16 ribs, 10 required filler pieces and on the starboard side each rib has a filler and on the port side about ½ needed filler pieces and each was a different thickeness. You can easily see these filler pieces in the looking forward starboard side photos. When you look at the photos of the boat looking aft from the bow you can see how this “deck hatch” assembly would “float” in the forward area and could be shimmed up to make sure it appeared level and lined up to the “eye”
First I think this was a rather poor way to construct the deck and attach the deckbeams to the hull, but time was money and the way they did it made it fast and could be done by someone with basic woodworking skills. My thought is to put in all new deckbeams and fasten them directly to the top lapstrake and fasten through from the outside of the hull. A inner gunwale would likely be required running forward to the bow and the deckbeams would be notched at the outer edge to fasten to it and to the top lapstrake plank. It will be more work to angle, taper and notch the end of the deck beams, but it should give me a much stronger deck that one can walk on without trepidation. To my eye the starboard forward area has “fallen” a bit, possibly from the deckbeams pulling away from the hull on that side.
Was this method a common way to attach the decks on the Thompson boats or just exclusive to the OFFSHORE models?
To those of you who have done this before you can see that this is a “project”. The hull planks and ribs appear to be in above average condition for a boat this age.
Your comments and advice would be appreciated
www.accentart.ca/boat.html
JRPfeff; not sure where this post will end up but I tried to set up on Image Schack and was not having much luck so went to Yahoo Address posted by txcaptain and posted some photos of my project. Is this how you meant to post photos here? I did mail some photos to Alan but you are right in that it would be more interesting for everyone to share and view. I am just not PC savvy enough to figure out how to do it. Not sure how to make the direct link to my photos but I believe you can access by using txcaptains link. Which is