Floor Panel Mod

[cata...@thehares.com]

One of the first minor modifications I made involved the forward main salon floor panel.  On our boat the panel slides slightly under the large drawer frame below the dinette and interfered a bit with just lifting the panel open.  It’s possible that later hulls don’t have this minor inconvenience.

 

Here are some pics of how I modified that panel to avoid this and open easily.  That was a simple 10 minute tweak that I felt was totally worth the effort.

 

See the cutout I made to allow the panel to lift without hitting the drawer frame.

 

Next pic is where I glued the cutout piece:

 

 

 

This is what it looks like now with the panel dropped down.

 

Jeff Hare

Solstice #17

[George Southern]

Jeff, 

Nice work. My #101 does not require that modification, but I wish my bilge  looked like yours!

George Southern

Blessing nee Spyhop

On Jun 17, 2025, at 11:36 AM, cata...@thehares.com wrote:



One of the first minor modifications I made involved the forward main salon floor panel.  On our boat the panel slides slightly under the large drawer frame below the dinette and interfered a bit with just lifting the panel open.  It’s possible that later hulls don’t have this minor inconvenience.

 

Here are some pics of how I modified that panel to avoid this and open easily.  That was a simple 10 minute tweak that I felt was totally worth the effort.

 

See the cutout I made to allow the panel to lift without hitting the drawer frame.

<image001.png>

 

Next pic is where I glued the cutout piece:

<image002.png>

 

 

 

This is what it looks like now with the panel dropped down.

<image003.png>

 

Jeff Hare

Solstice #17

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[bill pittore]

Hi Jeff,

 Ditto on the bilge. How do you keep it so shiny clean?

Bill

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/catalina355/7D718EF8-31EC-482A-A98A-DE11F42152F5%40gmail.com.

[Jeffrey Hare]

Our C320 was similar 20 years in.  I keep it clean by keeping water out of the bilge as much as possible and if water gets in, it's cleaned and dried out right away.  Since we use GFO packing, we don't get water in from the prop shaft so that helps, but we need a new prop shaft because of some scoring that makes the GFO not seal perfectly, but still no measurable leakage. 

Jon Vez did a really great job keeping it clean prior to my owning it and not exactly sure what his practice was, but if you allow sea water or the winterizing antifreeze to sit in the bilge, it'll stain it for sure. I use Zep Clear Shell to prevent mold/mildew from forming in the bilge and other hull areas.  I think he may have also done this since he's the one that turned me on to that stuff.

That's our 2001 C320 bilge right before we sold it after 20 years. I wouldn't eat off it, but it's not as much of a mess as some this age I've seen.

 

Jeff Hare

C355 #17 Solstice

C320 #809 Woodbine II (Formerly)

[Jon Vez]

Having OCD tendencies and boat ownership are usually a bad combination, but at least things stay clean 😎

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 23, 2025, at 4:27 PM, Jeffrey Hare <cata...@thehares.com> wrote:

Our C320 was similar 20 years in.  I keep it clean by keeping water out of the bilge as much as possible and if water gets in, it's cleaned and dried out right away.  Since we use GFO packing, we don't get water in from the prop shaft so that helps, but we need a new prop shaft because of some scoring that makes the GFO not seal perfectly, but still no measurable leakage. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/catalina355/ebe064d7-c259-4141-a9fe-8c2d48e72e21n%40googlegroups.com.

[Jeffrey Hare]

My wife says I'm competing with you in the OCD department.  :)

[Dan Gilch]

Some of you might actually have CDO not OCD! 

It’s kind of like OCD but the letters are in alphabetical order like they are supposed to be….