[Alberg30] Fixing bad decks

[SandersM at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/11/01 7:33:01 PM, timmins at optonline.net writes:

>Cork Strips? I'm curious, do you remember which magazine and what issue?
>Any reason your aware of to use cork instead of teak? I agree that glueing
>down is better than screwing down but why not glue down teak?

Okay, I want a gold star for pulling this one out.  "Now on Deck:  Cork 
Planking Dresses, Protects Yachts," by Robert M. Lane, appearing in the 
May/June 2001 issue of Passagemaker magazine.  The cork planking is actually 
a particleboard-like processed product of cork that has been ground, 
compressed, mixed with chemicals and sliced into planks.  The resulting 
material is much cheaper than teak, weighs half as much as teak, is much more 
durable and resistant to staining, requires none of the maintenance of teak, 
bends much more easily, and is easily glued to existing fibreglass decks -- 
or so the article claims.  If you can lay vinyl tile in your kitchen, the 
article says, you can lay a cork deck that when laid will look like a teak 
deck but will require little in the way of maintenance.  It is made by a 
Netherlands company called Stazo Marine Equipment BV, and the trade name of 
the product is MarineDeck 2000.  According to the article, a lot of builders 
are starting to use it in new construction, including Island Packet, Chris 
Craft, Aprea Mare and Hallberg Rassy.  the US distributor is MarQuipt in 
Pompano Beach, Florida, 954/957-8333.

The rest of the 6-page article talks about the details of working with the 
product.  It notes, in conclusion, that the costs in materials and labor of 
laying a teak deck over an existing fibreglass deck run from $100 to $130 a 
square foot.  With this cork stuff, the materials (including adhesives, seam 
caulk and binder) run about $37 a square foot, and the overall costs 
including labor run about $75 a square foot.

I swear I'm not a shill for the company -- I just cut out and saved the 
article because it intrigued me so.  If anyone gives it a try, I'd like to 
hear their impressions.

>I'll be on vacation for a week or so. Trying to sail to Block Island
>from Jamaica Bay again. Once again, it appears to be wind right on the nose
>and I don't fancy 130 miles hard on the wind (and my wife won't tolerate it
>either). We'll have to wait and see. It's off the dock by 10:00 AM tomorrow.

Okay, this is where I'm going to have to duck, but you've just summarized 
why, after 20+ years of sailing, I just sold my 1968 A30 and bought a 1968 
Chris Craft Commander 42.  Last summer, almost to the day, I set out on a 
two-week vacation from Oyster Bay, bound for Block and the Vineyard.  The 
wind of course was in my face the whole way, and I never made it east of 
Essex.  And, of course, the wind being perverse as it always is, backed 
around just in time for the return trip home.  After waaaay too many hours 
wallowing on the diesel, I finally decided that it was time for a change.  
I've attached a small jpg of a 1967 ad for the Commander for your collective 
derision.  Hey, I promise not to throw a wake across any A30's bow.  
Promise!!!

Sanders McNew
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