Plywood alternative - Seat bases

[Nasher]

One of my winter jobs on my RIB is to re-upholster the jockey seats.
I'm thinking of not reinstalling the rear bench seat as my new(to me) Opti 225 has added a lot of weight to the rear of the boat and it will offset most of it.

Anyway, I made the seat bases @14yrs ago from marine ply, and coated them in loads of varnish. They are still in pretty good condition, but some spots of Black mould are beginning to appear.

I've always had an aversion to wood on boats like a RIB, and would like to replace them with a non-maintenance alternative.

Has anyone found an alternative man-made material with the strength of Ply, a thinner section, and that can be screwed and stapled to?

I'm more than happy to create a Female mould and make a pair in Fibreglass, but I'm not sure I'll be able to staple the upholstery to it.

Thoughts anyone?
has a new wonder material passed this grumpy old luddite by?

My best solution at the moment looks like Fibreglass but I'll have to try my staple gun on a scrap piece.

Nasher.

[Nos4r2]

I used liquid epoxy on mine, they seemed to be fine on the Ballistic.

Nugent was talking about Foamex a few years ago. Might be worth asking if he tried it?

[Allye]

There’s a great product in the states called coosa they use for transom etc. Couldn’t find stock local to me though when I did the zap cat floor.

[GuyC]

I looked into this for mine and fixated on whatever the material is that they use for motorcycle seats.

I found this guide:

https://www.offbeatbikesmagazine.co....iy-seat-making

Some suspension seats came my way so I never actaually went through with it.

[andreworiordan]

We run a number of Safari RIBs and we only use one thing for our seats and have never had any problems with rot, we use 3/4 inch foam board, this is used for signs and is very easy to work, a jig saw cuts very easily and be sure to use a router on the edges to stop the sharp edges cutting through the new leatherette. Materials for seat coverings and covers can be purchased through point north fabrics.

[paulbrown22]

I was literally gathering quotes from local places here for retrimming the seats my RIB this week, and if they are replacing bases at least one quote included "Foamalux" bases, which is presumably the same as Andrew is describing above.

[Iankristy]

I redid mine recently and went through the same thought process. In the end I decided that(like yours) my ply bases had outlasted the material and I was overthinking it so bought a sheet of marine ply and a tin of varnish and off again for another 15 years or so [emoji4]

[pilotwillie]

+1 for foamex
Made a couple of seat bases with the stuff. Very easy to cut, shape, drill, screw, glue, etc.
Prob need a good thickness ( 3/4” as previously suggested ) but light weight.

[Limecc]

I recall staying at a caravan site where they had a rot proof timber substitute for the EHU points. I spent a few minutes on DuckDuckGo search engine and came up with this supplier:
https://www.recycledplasticbuildingm...0-x-d25mm.html
There's also something called Stormboard which is £72 a 25mm thickness sheet.

[Nasher]

Thanks all.

I like the idea of using a cutting board, but it would need to be quite large to do my double jockeys.

I'll have a look for Foamex whilst I'm supposed to be working from home in the morning.

Nasher

[Oldman2]

I'm late to this party but wonder if this would be of use wpc decking board.
https://www.wpc-decking.co.uk/4m-sol...-decking-board

There is a free sample pack available from them if need be.

[Nasher]

The Plastic wood substitute boards are a good idea, but none of the sizes I've seen are wide enough to create a jockey base with one piece, and I'd rather not have a join in there if possible.

Nasher

[treerat]

At 24cm must be getting close, not so sure my base board is much wider.

https://www.deckingsuperstore.co.uk/...d_Classic.html

[jeffstevens763@g]

Originally Posted by Nasher

The Plastic wood substitute boards are a good idea, but none of the sizes I've seen are wide enough to create a jockey base with one piece, and I'd rather not have a join in there if possible.

Nasher

i use these guys near me engineering plastics i see they have foamex they have a cutting service too
https://www.trentplastics.co.uk/

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by Nasher

The Plastic wood substitute boards are a good idea, but none of the sizes I've seen are wide enough to create a jockey base with one piece, and I'd rather not have a join in there if possible.

Nasher

You didn't follow my links to sheet material then

[Nasher]

Originally Posted by Limecc

You didn't follow my links to sheet material then

Sorry Limecc, I did, but at £95 inc delivery for a 1000 x 1000 x 25mm sheet I soon blotted it from my memory.

Nasher.

[blufin]

Buddy of mine just finished reupholstering his powerboat using 10mm Palboard for the seat bases, worked out well...light, easy to cut, staple etc & seems strong enough for his needs...I used an off cut to repair a backrest on a rib and again worked nicely...his brother is in the printing industry which is where he got it.

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by Nasher

Sorry Limecc, I did, but at £95 inc delivery for a 1000 x 1000 x 25mm sheet I soon blotted it from my memory.

Nasher.

Wow £31 (+vat) delivery charge is almost as much as the cost of the sheet. Maybe you have a local supplier and can collect in person now you know this type of product exists?

Incidentally if you could collect enough HDPE such as commonly used for milk and pop containers, they can be moulded into sheet material on a baking tray using a precise oven temperature. There's many YouTube videos of people doing this. Here's the first example that came up in a search:
https://youtu.be/kUR6_bQLU-E

[smallribber]

Many boats that are hundreds of years old are made from wood. I think overthinking is the key word in this thread

[jeffstevens763@g]

Buffalo board?