As promised, I am posting this section of the "World Famous Joe Dempsey's Rhodes 22 Projects Book" with the subject line clearly labeled so as to be more easily found in the Rhodes List Archives. I have gone over to the dark side and no longer own S/V Respite, but have great fondness for the Rhodes 22 and all the gang on The List.  My wife and I now own a classic Trojan 42' flush deck motor yacht, which demands many projects of its own so I hope you don't mind that I lurk around and hope this may provide some help to those attempting various projects on their Rhodes 22.



I documented several projects in a Word file and imbedded photos so I could share what I found and learned in the process so that it may be of benefit to other Rhodies. The photos may not come through. If not, I will try to share them separately. I will post my musings from other projects: Main Berth and Setee, Centerboard Trunk and Gasket, Solar Exhaust Vent Installation, Port Lite Re-bedding, Rub Rail Replacement, Wind Vane and VHF Antenna Re-positioning and Making a Boom Tent for Rhodes 22.



1.	   Cabin Sole and Subfloor

Once the settee had been removed due to continuous musty odors and wet bilge, I decided to explore beneath the sub-floor and found rotten sub-floor support ledger strips and the galley kick plate were severely rotten. A teak and holly sole had already been installed to replace the existing carpet, but the urethane finish had deteriorated after only one year due to moisture. It had not been properly treated prior to installation. The subfloor consisted of 3 pieces. Two large pieces (basically horseshow shaped that surrounded a narrow, also horseshoe shaped piece that was the width of the 12" square bilge inspection hatch) that were not easily removable without removing either the galley or settee (which also needed replacing and had been removed already).  Removal of the ¾" plywood subfloor required using a sawzall to cut one leg of each of the two basic pieces so that they could slide out of their positions and be removed from the boat.  I determined at this time that the sub-floor, ledgers and galley kickplate would need to be replaced.  The subfloor plywood was essentially sound but the bottom was covered with black mold.  The original sub-floor was ¾" CDX (Grade C, Exterior Pine plywood. It is not known if it had been pressure treated. Likely not since there was no mill stamp visible. I decided to replace it with ¾" Marine Grade Fir. In hind sight, pressure treated CDX Pine would be okay. I changed the cut pattern for the new sub-floor in order to simplify installation. I did this by shortening the legs of the aft "horseshoe" and converting the forward "horseshoe" to a rectangle on the port side and an "L" on the starboard side. The center section remained the same surrounding the centerboard trunk. I coated both sides and edges of all sub-floor components with 2 coats of "Woodlife" brand wood preservative. This was followed by a coat of "Helmsman" varnish with two coats on the edges.

The rotten ledger strips were cut to the contour of the hull and I used the old one as a template. I cut these out of 5/4 PT Pine decking which provided a full 1" of support and surface to secure fasteners. The kick plate was cut from ½" Marine Fir plywood using the same template for the bottom cut. (See the right side of the above drawing for the dimensions of the ledger and kick plate).  After installing the kick plate and ledger respectively, the sub-floor components were set in place and fastened down with #6 316 S.S. 1-1/4" flat head wood screws.  I sanded the underside of the ¼" Marine Grade Teak and Holly plywood sole with 180 sandpaper with an orbital sander and applied 2 coats of "Woodlife" wood preservative. I allowed about an hour between coats and after 24 hours began re-finishing the upper surface using a 220 grit sandpaper. It originally was finished with 3 coats of "Helmsman" Urethane Spar Varnish-Gloss Finish. After sanding I applied 3 more coats allowing 24-48 hours between coats and light sanding with 320 grit paper using a and block. Prior to installing the sub-floor and sole, I found this a fine opportunity to paint the entire bilge. For this I used "Interlux" Bilge Paint.  The sole was laid down using #6 Brass 1" Flathead wood screws, countersunk 1/8".





Joe Dempsey

Trojan 42 Motor Yacht

M/V Voyager

Ex-Rhodes 22

S/V Respite