Hi everybody. My son is renovating an old avon searider. He has built a 2-pers centerconsole. The problem he now faces is how to mount it to the deck. Some people say that he should just bolt it, some say glue it with epoxi and some say both. The avon deck is approx 8 mm thick, mix of polyeter and marine plywood. Also there are som tanks aft under deck at both sides. Are they only hermitically closed or are they filled with foam etc? Keen to know so we dont puncture any floating device. What kind of bolts? What epoxi? With filler?
Any hints would be appreciated. Knowledge here is on the low side.
Regards from Sweden
I have fitted new centre consoles to 3 Seariders over the past few years (all 4 metre ones). Most seariders have screw-down points mounded into the floor but these are only in the positions that Avon wanted - usually offfset. There is no problem drilling into anything in the floor provided you seal around it with silicon or sikaflex as the boat floats on the floor when the lower floor floods.
I once got an old Searider and removed a load of wooden battens that had been screwed down to position boxes and the first time we launched it there was water squirting up through loads of holes!
We also had one that was only held down by the original 4 big Avon bolts and the whole thing flew over the side complete with driver..
The best way I have found is to drill through the console flange and seat the flange in sikaflex sealant/glue, plus use large (say no 12 or 14 by 25mm+) stainless self tappers with penny washers every 200mm around the edge. This is the way many of the larger rib builders do it.
Thanks everyone!!!!
Amazing how easy it is to get professional
help on the net!
I`ll go for the self tappers and the sikaflex. I talked to a boatseller here and their mecanics said they would use sikaflex 291. Is that sufficient combined with the tappers, 5.5 mm or should I go for 292?
Thanks and regards
Lennnart and Fredrik, the latter is the son who's doing the job
