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Practical Boat Owner

Foaming at the floor

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The new foam floor replaced the old cork cockpit floor which was hard to keep clean

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Since we bought our boat three years ago the cockpit floor has looked pretty shabby. The caulking is peeling, and some of the planks are chipped and ripped. It’s cork, which for my money is the best material for outdoor flooring. It’s a pleasure to walk on barefoot because it’s spongy and doesn’t get roasting hot in the Caribbean sun, it’s hard-wearing and grippy even when wet. It won’t last as long as teak but it’s obviously much cheaper.

The big downside with cork is that it holds the dirt. No matter how often I scrub and hose it down, grimy water still flows off it. It’s so grubby that there’s no three-second rule if you drop a biscuit in our cockpit.

While in Guatemala I got quotes for a teak replacement. I thought the labour and wood there would make it an affordable option for the three square metres of flooring I needed, but the quote came back at over £3,000! And the

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