Hi Wes-

Thanks for the Info! I would have found that out this weekend when I was working on the boat. Did you just replace the wood or did you replace the foam too? Just curious?

Don

Instead of plywood, could lightweight delron work? No fear of rotting, and may save pounds.

Just the wood . was very carefull to not damage the foam .

Can replace the wood on the sundeck with a variety of light weight coring material. A nice benefit of the multi-section design on the sundeck of the older Formula's is that in event of a cut or rip in one section, you only have to replace that section. i have seen examples of (1)piece construction that got a rip/tear-owner's had sticker shock on cost to replace.

Dgduck13 - In a different thread I saw you were taking the rails off your 311 - are you interseted in selling them? I'm looking at an '87 311 that has a bent bow rail but otherwise is very nice boat.

Wantsa311

I am talking the rails off of the back end of the boat. The front rails are too handy to take off. Sorry.

Don

If you are concerned about weight, you may want to do the foam as the "stock" foam is like a sponge and stays wet. I am replacing mine with reticulated foam like they use on new boats. Water just passes right through it, and you probably know how heavy that hatch can be if you got caught in the rain. I already put it in the back seat last season, and it worked great. Seats dry out very quickly.

Rear Hatch
 

A new board product I recently heared about is called King Starboard. It suppose to be very good and quite possiable what Formula is useing now. The name of the company is King Plastic Crop. ph. 941-493-5502, www.kingplastic.com This along with that high tech foam mention earlier would be a very nice set up for your new hatch. I warn you, the Starboard is VERY EXPENSIVE but only the best for our Birds. Propwash

Starboard may well be a branded label for Delrin or Delran or some similar spelling. Check with a local plastic's supplier house before buying Starboard. Even if there are some differences, it may still be acceptable for your use. One possible downside is strength. I think the plywood in our sundecks (assuming your 311 is like my 302) provided some of the ability to walk on it without damage. It would be bad to get a waterproof weaker material but not be able to have the Swedish bikini team dance on your sundeck.

Another thing, the delrin machines like wood, holds screws and staples well, but not glue. I was going to have a small boat builder's upholstery shop make bolsters, and they used a ss tube frame with delrin screwed to the tube for the upholstery staples to hold to. Overall a McLeod quality bolster, but they went under before getting to my work, and disappeared. Ah, the joys of boat maintenance and contractors.