C-Dory 22 Cruiser Interior Rebuild

[cdoryfan]

Hi all, firstly excited for my first post to what seems like a fantastic community.

I have a C-Dory 22 Cruiser which has a bit of rot at the bottom of the seat boxes on the port side. My plan is to take them out and use the old panels as templates for new ones. A couple of questions arose

1) it looks like original build is plywood with a white exterior that doesn't seem to be paint but looks to thin to be something like formica, could someone advise what it is?

2) Option for rebuild
a) Plywood and formica (in my mind pros are cost, similar to original build, and medium weight)
b) Starboard (pros: easy to care for, don't mind if sits in water, cons: HEAVY on both wallet and boat)
c) 3/4 in PVC from home-depot (the cheapo in me likes this but I am worried about the structural integrity and lack of UV protection... even though it's inside
d) Laminate my own panels with divinycell sheathed in fiberglass (pros is I am curious about the process and like combination of strength and weight, cons are it's unknown to me)
e) Any better options? I'm open and as it is non-structural willing to try something novel and exciting

Really appreciate your thoughts / comments in advance! Thanks all!

[ssobol]

Home Depot PVC lumber is not that strong. It does not hold screws well. It is good enough for enclosing things, but you'd need some sort of frame for support.

Starboard has a noticeable coefficient of expansion. You need to allow for this if you use it. See the Starboard website for info. Depending on where you live an boat, the temperature swings in the cabin can be significant. In my boat the difference of temps in the cabin can vary by over 100 deg F between winter and summer storage.

You might look into Coosa Board. I don't know much about it, but I read about people using it in other boats for a variety of things. Might cost as much or more than Starboard though (but I don't know).

[Schuster]

Congratulations on you getting a 22. I guess my question would be how did the cabinets bottoms get rotted? It may not be a big deal but I believe I would check the deck for signs of rotting also. Hopefully it is isolated to the cabinets only. No matter there is plenty of resources within this forum or fix anything.
If it's been broken someone in CBrats has posted a fix. Welcome to the group.

[RonJr]

I used laminate glued to marine plywood when I redid the interior of Beagle. I used the same glue you would use for a countertop.

http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album1080&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

[drbridge]

There is a wood panel product (Called cabinet backer when I purchased it) that is a ply wood panel that comes with a white laminate covering both sides and is used for the inside of cabinets mostly. I used this when I remodeled the kitchen of our house. The left over pieces worked great for making some modifications to our interior and blended in with the original cabinets nicely.

You will not find this product at Home Depot. I bought mine at a specialty lumber supplier, Edensaw Lumber in Port Townsend WA. It is a specialty product and may be hard to find. Check with cabinet shops in your area and they may know about where to get some or maybe even sell you some scraps.

If I could not find that I would go with a light weight marine plywood such as Okume and then epoxy cote it and paint . Petit Easy Poxy 3108 off white paint is a good choice and is very close to C-Dory white.

You could probably skip the epoxy cote and be fine with paint only in you interior since it should be dry most of the time. I have built several wood boats and I know that many wood boats have parts such as interiors that are painted wood with no epoxy cote and they last for many years if taken care of. I built a Simmons Sea Skiff that has the interior painted with no epoxy cote. it is 15 years old and still has original paint that is in very nice condition still. I do store it inside.

[thataway]

The original was plywood coated with Melamine laminate on both sides. Someone here will come up with the proper spelling: I thought is was "Decaboard". There is a Decoboard, which is similar but not exactly the same. The current builders of C Dory had a source and should be able to put you in touch with them. Search of Decaboard does come up a number of times in the C Brat archives...

Lots of good information in previous posts above. I would check the hull, and fear if you have rot there, you are going to have a wet core. I have heard of the aft cabin bulkhead getting core rot (it was similar material in some early boats).

[cdoryfan]

Thanks all - you have proven to be quite the resource! Deck floor seems solid thankfully, will investigate all options but your comments collectively are leaning me towards the classic ply & formica option. Time to find some light ply and mix up some west systems.

[NORO LIM]

[quote="thataway"]The original was plywood coated with Melamine laminate on both sides. Someone here will come up with the proper spelling: . . . /quote]

I believe many of the boats were built with "Decraguard." It wasn't used in either of my boats, so I may not know what I'm talking about! - (wouldn't be the first time )

[Reelin2]

I had the same issue, I was able to rescue the factory panels by cutting out the rot. It was repaired in a couple ways, some were repaired by cutting out the rotted areas then laminating marine ply to the old with gorilla glue. Other panels were repaired by applying penetrating epoxy then fair with poly filler. On a couple others I cut groves down the bottom edge, sealed with epoxy then filled with Gorilla glue. On all repairs they were all finished by fairing and painted, pretty easy and saved a ton of work and money.

There are some photos in my interior restoration album, good luck with your project.

[JamesTXSD]

I bought a couple pieces of the wood with the white laminate from the factory when we bought our 25 in 2006. At that time, it was called Decraboard, and I haven't seen it anywhere since.

[thataway]

There are also Duraboard, Decraguard Decoboard (Deco Board-Deco-Board...Not sure which it is. Maybe later I'll do a comprehensive search--but the OP gets the idea. It also came with a printed teak pattern, which was on the outside of my 1993 C Dory 22. I put "Cetol" on it, which seemed to bring it back.

[pcg]

[RonJr]

Ron here. The green upholstery was the final upholstery color. The seat back can be snapped to the bulkhead, and used with the occupant facing the table, or it can rest on the table (folded in half) and be used forward facing. The seat box can slide back or forward and be secured with fasteners located inside the seat box. Both seats can face forward, or face the table.

I no longer own Beagle, and these are the only pictures I have. In every instance, with the interior remodel, I followed what other cbrats had previously done. None of these mods were original ideas.

Hope this helps.

[drbridge]

We have not cut out our bulkhead, but I did install these seats with a swivel and they are so much more comfortable than the original seats. Both traveling and while anchored. More pics in my album if you are interested.

[pcg]