I replaced the flooring in the dinette with white oak strips. It's not as hard as you might think. I already had the wood. I cut it into 1/2" thick strips, grooved the edges to take battens, and assembled them with aluminum angle. Finish is spar varnish. They look good and weren't too hard to make. My original plywood could have been covered with something, but it was nasty from spills through the years. The photo will give you an idea of how it went together.

Since the "Admiral" is allergic to mold and mildew, we ripped out all of the old carpet and had a guy lay down linoleum with wood trim strips around the edges. Has held up fine for 4 years now. We add a throw rug here and there, mainly for wet feet, then toss them out at the end of the year.

Jeff

There is a lot to be said for a cabin sole that can be removed quickly in an emergency.

Thanks Jeff. I'll be taking a similar route. Like your admiral, I have a high allergy to dust and mold. (If you think you might have mold someplace, just ask me over and I'll tell you in just a few minutes. Of course a little medicine would be appreciated. . . )

Everyone has their preferences, but I worked one summer on the cleaning crew at a local hotel where I spent several weeks steam cleaning carpets. After seeing what came out of the holding tank of the steam cleaner, I acquired an aversion to carpeting. Wood looks great too, but I'm doing some other woodwork and a wood floor would be overdoing it.

For all those cleaning the black gook out of the bilge, I found the best product to be the household heavy duty degreaser--the stuff you use in kitchens--but nothing beats elbow grease and several thousand paper towels. And yes, I did it all on the hard, away from the river and--just to be sure--flushed the bilge out with water.

Waxed the hull too. (Boy does that help.) Now but for the drain plug and the batteries, she's ready to splash.