www.iFourWinns.com

Has anyone modded their vista steps to replace the carpet with wood? Our carpet is looking tired and I would like to replace it.

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Chris
04 288 Vista

Don't see why this couldn't be done...

Throw up some pictures of the step layout and I'm sure members here will start throwing out ideas!

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2008 318 Vista -SOLD, but I am still around!
All Night Long, Seattle WA

We had a member in here some time ago who had a 268. He did many things to that boat. Click on the link and view past boats. All his projects are in there. He also gave very detailed instructions on what he did.
http://members.toast.net/boatguy/projects.htm

I love that site. All sorts of cool projects very well documented.

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2001 Horizon 260 - 7.4 Volvo GSI DP

I think a lot of us here miss Al. He was a great source of info. Now away from the Four Winns though. From his site you can see he has moved up.

Al was/is a wealth of knowledge and great at documenting his DIY projects.

I think if you check his site you will see that after he made those gorgeous wood steps, he covered them with carpet lay in's.

Real wood would be too easy to mar and scratch, Flexiteak or Plasdeck would be a better choice, or some other synthetic laminate (pergo glued down to ply might work).

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Brett DiMichele

Nah, just use a good hardwood. A tough red oak would probably be a good choice. Obviously it would be good to use a tough varnish too. The factory steps on the current Vista models have a groove in them with a rubber non-skid strip. Wouldn't be too difficult to use a router to put in a groove for the same sort of thing.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

You could use the hardest wood in the world, and a two part chemical pour on poly (the high build stuff they use on bar tops and such) and it's going to scratch with normal foot traffic. I can't see going to all that effort to let it get scratched up. If you did some sort of carpet inlay in the center of the wood, where it would see most of the traffic then it would probably work out.

I love the steps Al did, his wood work on that boat was gorgeous. Wonder if the new owner appreciates the work Al put into it.

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Brett DiMichele

Oh come on, be realistic. How much foot traffic is a boat going to be getting? Compare that to, say, a HOUSE? There are plenty of houses getting wood steps installed without being all worried about scratches from normal foot traffic. It's not like there's going to be work boot traffic trampling the steps either. There'd be bigger problems up on the deck gelcoat if that were the case. And what of people with teak and holly flooring? I'm all for maintaining decent looking surfaces in the boat, but I find it utterly ridiculous to worry about wood steps getting 'scratched'.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Bill,

I am being realistic. Big difference between white gelcoat and crystal clear, poly. And yes Gelcoat does get scratched and depending on the color it's a bear. As a former all red gelcoat boat owner I can say if all you've ever owned is stark white then you don't know how much of an eye sore scratched Gel can be.

Hardwood floors in a home are generally matt finished which does not show the marks as bad. If they are "highly polished" then they are regularly power orbital polished (kind of hard to do with small boat steps) and covered with large area rugs.

I don't understand why you take such an issue with my opinion, and obviously Al had the same opinion as I do, or else he wouldn't have covered his gorgeous clear coated steps, with carpeting.

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Brett DiMichele

Now now kids. The link is there with all the info for Ruff Life to look over. If you havent noticed he isnt responding at this point. Let him do what he wants. He only asked a simple question.

Exactly. A matte finish is a better solution. Even the steps in the Vista use it. Using a gloss finish would be problematic also because of slipping. Putting some carpet on top of them (presumably rubber-backed) returns some traction. But also offers the advantage of better cleaning.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Yeah, good point. No worries.

There's always more than one way to approach things. Hopefully he'll find the way that works for him.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Thanks for the input. I was originally thinking about laminating some material to the existing steps. The problem is going to be the edges. I like the solid wood approach however my steps are not supported like they are in the example posted. I am worried about the strength of the structure.

Has anyone put down their own flexiteak? Where would you get the materials?

I am going to the AC boat show and will look at what companies are doing.

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Chris
04 288 Vista

Chris,

I've done a "little"




I used PlasDeck which is a similar product to FlexiTeak and can be purchased from http://www.ttcustommarine.com

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Brett DiMichele