Re: Curious - why remove?

Posted by FrankP on Jan 13, 2005

I lift my boat by the coaming when carrying it by myself. The deck beam isn't critical at all from a design perspective, though I wouldn't recommend taking it out unless there is a /valid/ space issue.

The coaming is plenty strong enough to support lifting and, at least on the NorthBay like I have, the deck beam is so close to the coaming as to not actually provide any extra protection against the deck cracking anyway.

I think the deck beam on the CLC demo boat is within an inch of the forward edge of the cockpit, and on mine it was actually directly under the coaming stack, putting a part of the beam /in/ the cockpit opening. Removing it certainly didn't cause any strength loss, but I glassed the underside of the deck with 2 layers of 4 oz glass anyway, just in case. I figure the sandwich of 3 layers of fiberglass with the 4mm plywood of the deck more than makes up for any strength loss.

Weight wasn't an issue, and honestly I agree with you that it isn't significant enough to bother worrying about it for the sake of weight. Comfort is a huge issue, however, especially in a boat as small as the NB.

I wear a size 12 or 13 shoe and fit quite well in a NorthBay, but my legs are long enough to bang the deckbeam, so I simply removed it.

FrankP

In Response to: Curious - why remove? by Rick on Jan 12, 2005

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