Cabin sole and holding tank

[typhoontye]

Hello all,

I am tackling the cabin sole. Mine sags badly right around the mast area, both sides, probably 10 sq ft or so. I have cut an access hole to the left of the mast, near the settee, and find that I can jack it up level without too much difficulty. I noticed that there is little in the way of a vertical support (from the underside of the floor stringers to the hull) in this area. Hence (I suspect) the sagging. Other parts of the sole appear better supported from the underside. My plan is to jack it level and install oak or teak supports from the hull bottom to the stringers in several places. I think this will work ok, but if anyone has tackled this project and has any insight I would appreciate it.

Second project, while I am doing major surgery on the cabin sole, is trying to increase my holding tank capacity. I currently have a 20 gallon tank under the cabin sole, located aft of the mast and forward of the access hatch that is located over the keel cavity. It appears factory installed. It looks to me like there is room for a larger tank that I may have to have custom built. I want at least 30 gallons, preferably 40 gallons of capacity. And after much thought I do not want to go the composting tank route. If anyone has experience with this project I would really appreciate the benefit of same.

Many thanks, and I hope everyone is having an enjoyable Summer!

David
Blue Moon
#189

[Patrick Price]

Hey Dave,
I don’t have any sagging right now but it doesn’t feel soft in that area so I want to fix the issue before it gets worse…what are you using to jack up the floor while you install supports?

[typhoontye]

First an administrative note: I tried to respond to Patrick’s thread via e-mail, but it did not come back to me, so I assume it did not make it out. This has happened before so it appears that if you want to comment or respond to a thread you may need to visit the website to do so.

Patrick, you may not like this approach, but since I am also replacing the flooring surface, I can cut holes in the floor as required. I cut rectangular holes near the settees, adjacent to the mast. Then I used furniture clamps to ‘pull up’ the floor where it had sagged. My floor had sagged to the point where I had a three quarter inch gap between the floor surface and the bottom of the vertical surface of the port and starboard settees. So by cutting the holes, I could get under the floor with one end of a furniture clamp and place the other end of the furniture clamp on the horizontal surface, seating surface, of the settees. It pulled up the floor very nicely and the gap is gone. Then I glassed in vertical lumber supports from the bottom surface of the sole to the hull surface to hold the floor in the proper position. The middle of the floor, nearer the mast, had also sagged, so I placed a solid piece of lumber, four feet long, longitudinally along the floor in the area of the sag, as a temporary brace. Of course there was a gap between the lumber and the floor surface in the area of the sag, so I used furniture clamps to draw the floor up to the solid lumber, making it level with the surrounding good floor. After installing my supports to hold the floor in the correct position, I removed the clamps and the solid piece of lumber. The floor is flat and solid now, albeit with two new holes, easily repaired. The new quarter inch teak and holly plywood will cover all the repair areas.

Unrelated, I also removed my holding tank today through a much larger hole cut into the cabin sole. I am having a custom tank built with sides that flare out to give it greater capacity than the old one. I should go from 20 gallons to 35 or so. Building a mock up tomorrow to be sure that what I designed will fit.

Hope this is helpful

David

[Phil Fontaine]

After two strikes I am sending this via the forum

Hi David and Pat

What follows is a reply I sent two or three weeks ago in reply to David’s original message on the cabin sole problem. I’m guessing it never got out so I am trying again without the photo attachments. If it doesn’t come back to me I’ll try the forum.

Hi David,

I tackled this problem about three or four years ago and sent a write-up and photos but have not been able to find them in the archives. I expect that it may have gone only to another owner who was working the problem at the same time.

Pearson depended on the stiffness of the vertical board that forms the face of the settee for support of the forward part of the main cabin sole by using a cleat fastened to the inside of the board and wood screws into the plywood sole. Water damage (from overfilling of tanks) ultimately caused the screws to pull out and the sole to sag. My first thought was to try to jack the sole and replace the screws with thru-bolts but found there wasn’t enough access to do that. My solution was to put a teak cleat on the visible side of the settee board and thru-bolt. I also added vertical supports forward and aft of the mast. I’ll try to attach photos to this message but if unsuccessful perhaps someone can instruct me on how to send them.

While you are working under there be sure to have a look, farther aft, at the bolts attaching the athwart-ship structure to the vertical members supporting the galley area etc. If I remember correctly, the nuts had come off three of mine and two of the bolts had backed out enough to disengage completely. Fortunately there is not a lot of clearance between the end of the vertical supports and the structure above so the sag, there was not too bad. Nevertheless it was pretty unnerving. I was able to get everything jacked up and reassembled working through the hatch next to the ice box and the mast opening with a selection of long socket extensions. The scisors jack from my car with it’s long handle was the tool of choice for the jacking.

Phil Fontaine – Aurora

Attachments:

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   Aurora-Cabin-Sole-Repair-006.jpg
   

[typhoontye]

Thanks Phil. Your approach sounds like the logical way to go since you wanted to preserve the floor. Since I didn’t, I could cut holes to gain access for more vertical supports in the area adjacent the settees. So far so good, but currently awaiting the holding tank, ordered today. It will be 35 gallons, much better than the current twenty. I will keep the group updated.

David

[Author]

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