Micky or Dracula?

There’s a terrible noise whenever I walk through my boat!

It sounds like a Hammer House of Horror special effect of either hoards of Pied Piper mice, or the slow opening of Dracula’s rusty coffin lid.

And it’s recently been getting much worse!

It could be that the cabin sole is just getting old, or possibly Christmas Pudding isn’t quite as low calorie as I’d managed to convince myself..

Either way something had to be done… and looking on various web forums it’s a widespread problem!

There are a couple of solutions offered:

1. Rubbing on candle wax or silicone spraying the edge of the boards
I’ve tried that and it works for about an hour

2. Sprinkling talcum powder on the joints (really!)
I’ve only been boarded once by customs but I think if they saw a sprinkling of white powder around the cabin an overly thorough search might ensue.

I appreciate that we’re all sailors, but nevertheless, the snap of a rubber glove is a sound that creates a feeling of eager anticipation in only a minority!

On careful investigation the problem seemed to be that the sole boards are flexing when trodden on and I presume that as the resin-backed plywood boards have aged they have become less rigid…. so the easiest solution seemed to be some extra support between the ribs.

So after knocking a few bits of wood together and with the help of my new friend – the ‘Big Boy’ Resin Kit from Tool Station – things looked like this…. a double support right where the two sole boards butt together.

A quick slop of paint and there we are…… ‘H’ for hush hopefully

So then the acid test of a promenade around the cabin….. and I’m happy to report…. a complete success….

I can now visit the heads in the middle of the night like a stealthy Ninja!

I think I could have solved the problem more elegantly with longer cross members, so long as they didn’t restrict the flow of any bilge water – and it would certainly have been easier to fibreglass them in – small fiddly shapes are a nightmare for glass matting I’ve discovered – but as with the recently re-glazed forehatch, I know a lot more now I’ve done it.

The trouble is I’ll probably never do either of those jobs ever again!