Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

I've already found some great info on this site for my new (to me) 202 Shabah so thanks for all the great threads. I did a few searches but couldn't find a thread regarding the construction of the floor in the Shabah and possibly all Mariahs. As I was doing a more detailed inspection of the boat I pulled up the snap in carpet and discovered a strange transition from the open bow to the cockpit. It appears like the bow area is a separate insert from the underlying floor structure. The carpet from the cockpit area extends up under this "insert". The aluminum threshold piece has tiny screws that have long since stripped out of the thinner fiberglass material.

My main concern is the likelihood of water getting trapped under this area especially since the carpet seems to go underneath (probably not very far). The floor seems very solid throughout the boat as this thing was kept inside it's entire life. I do want to avoid any future issues so just being OCD about it I guess. She will live indoors during the winter but stays outside under a cover in the summer.

My inclination would be to try and cut the carpet right at the threshold and pull it out from underneath but not sure how far it goes. I also want to use larger stainless screws to reattach the threshold piece into the floor structure. Thanks for any feedback or insight into this.

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

Do you have a pic of this? Your description is a little bit hard to understand. Photos will help explain it a lot better! :wink_thumbup:

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

Good idea, i'll get a pic and post it!

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

The floor in the bow area is part of the top deck mould. The flooring on my 1995 is treated wood. I wouldn't worry about it unless you leave your boat exposed to the elements. The screw holes are from snaps that held a piece of carpet on the bow floor. They strip out over time.

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

I had some rot in this exact area in area in a 99. You are correct this was/is a design issue in my opinion. The rot I had was near the front edge of the "transition" behind the aluminum and also down the starboard side of the floor extending one and a half feet to the bow and three inches to the centerline. I noticed this because the floor felt a little soft in those areas. My boat has carpet in back, no carpet in bow. There is a gap between the aluminum and the floor filled by a folded in half piece of carpet. The wood is sandwiched in fiberglass. Floor, wood, thin layer of glass, small gap then carpet, then the main floor of the boat. The design flaw as I see it is when that carpet gets wet it can't dry out, especially the exposed edge near the cockpit. I scraped out all rot with a large screw driver, dried the area, filled with expanding marine foam. I replaced the aluminum with a vinyl piece and glued in place (no screws) left a 1/4 inch gap to the floor. I did not replace the folded carpet filler in the gap between the floor and trim piece. The foam worked great and I was able to fill the void inside of the fiberglass "sandwich". I now also never put wet life jackets in the under seat stowage, and open those stowaways when covered. Now with the air gap near the cockpit under the floor drys out. Glad you are finding/fixing this now before you have bigger problems!


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Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

BTW I was also thinking of cutting the carpet as well. Leaving the air gap I mentioned seems to have fixed the drying issue.


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Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

I tackled this project this weekend. as all have stated, a design flaw. mine was very soft at the threshold toward the bow.
I went for "GIT ROT" and made slot cuts where the wood was bad to acceptable.

This morning i checked the hardness and i am very pleased with the results. i will now sand/scuff, paint and apply black SeaDek down in this area and will be good as new!!

Ill try and post the finished result.

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

Wow, this was one of my first projects on my boat after I bought it in May of this year. The starboard side was very soft and the screws had just pulled out. This was mainly my fault because I did not know the front storage compartment did not have a drain to the exterior and melting ice was going right to the carpet below. Like many others I removed much of the water logged plywood about 6 inches on the starboard and only an inch on the rest. I used a high strength epoxy and fiberglass material to fill in the area. It is solid as a rock now :)

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

I never had carpet in my 202.... There may have been once, and I don't have an aluminum threshold piece over the floor transition. I thought that it looked a bit shoddy to just have this bow shell piece like that.http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...1a48f02312.jpg
I guess I need to think a little more about snap in carpeting and fabricating an aluminum piece for the transition.


1998 202 Shabah 5.0L Alpha 1

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

Wow, Guess I was wrong about it being an issue. My boat is garaged so I had no idea.

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

Thanks guys for all the great feedback. I don't feel quite as crazy for questioning this design. Fortunately no soft spots on my boat but i'm going to pull that carpet from underneath the threshold and provide a good path for water from the forward storage compartments. I'll just use short but larger diameter screws for attaching the aliminum strip to the threshold and not go into the subfloor as I was thinking before. I think jjt1276 is right about leaving a gap underneath the transition.

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

I don't know where the carpet ends going towards the bow. I expect it might go all the way into the anchor locker! I never felt bare wood that I remember when scraping the rot out.


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Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

As far as I understood from the archived Mariah Factory Tour video (available on this site), there is NO wood in the later year original Mariah boats in the 202 size. The larger boats over 22 feet use encapsulated balsa wood to further strengthen the hull in major stress points.


1998 202 Shabah 5.0L Alpha 1

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

Huh. Well I pulled a bunch of it out that was water logged at the transition. I will try to get a picture next time.

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

I think the wood is just encapsulated in fiberglass. No exposed wood. This board was mostly encapsulated except the edge facing the cockpit. The underside is very thin, and not structural. My boat had carpet in the cockpit and none in the bow from the factory. If you have the ivory color fiberglass in the interior I have some vinyl trim left over from fixing mine. (Aluminum trim piece was lost so I bonded a vinyl one in its place) I can take a picture next time I have it out.


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Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

I'm going to get under that transition on Friday and see if I can tell where the carpet ends or if it does end! The more I look at this the crazier it seems they would lay carpet all the way under the front seats and storage and then leave open drains on top of the carpet. When I first looked in the storage under the front middle seat I saw a drain and assumed it went out the side. Saw something that I thought was clogging the drain so tried to dig it out only to discover the drain ended on top of the carpet.

As impressed as I am with Mariah quality this seems like a flaw in the design as others have already pointed out. I think the best solution for me is to leave that threshold open as much as possible to promote drainage and drying. I might leave the carpet out just to help that process. No wet stuff in the front lockers!

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

I always assumed the bow cooler drained into the bilge down through the ski locker. I'll have to check that out on my boat.

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

Well I only pulled out carpet when I went to clean it. It was about 95 degrees and the wet water coming from the transition was ice cold. I just stopped using it after the repair

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

I just used mine to store wipe down towels and an beach umbrella anchor. :)

Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

Just my last few comments/thoughts on this subject... First, it seems like the floor rot problem is going to be an issue for almost anyone that has themselves, or purchased from someone who used the lockers for wet stowage, used the front cooler regularly, got rain/ice into the bow, non vented covering etc.
Probably more of us than not. Can this somehow be made into a sticky? I tackled this project without all of this insight and ideas and it would have been easier (and less stressful) if I had this info first. Second, it makes sense from a manufacturing standpoint to have one drop of carpet cover the entire bow section, starting at the pass through and extending all the way to the bow and extending outboard to the sea wall? I suspect that only one drop was used.
I believe my cooler at the front is just "drained" to the carpet on the floor as well. Easy to believe because inside the back seat there are two drains that "drain" to nowhere but the floor/carpet underneath. I also prop the whole back seat up a bit to promote drying under the back seat, otherwise it's wood on top of wet carpet. If you need a new trim piece on the threshold I used commercial vinyl corner guard. It looks nicer than the aluminum in my opinion. I think the best idea mentioned is use the bow stowage for dry stowage only!


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Re: Floor Construction 95' Shabah
 

Glad I read this and I plan to check it out on my little Diablo. Pretty sure carpet does run under that molded floor. Don't think I've notice any issue at all but I don't have a cooler, don't put wet stuff under the seat lockers up front and always store the boat with the seats open to promote drying. In fact we consider those lockers the driest spot for clothes and such since we don't climb into the boat soaking wet there.

I also always store the boat with a plastic prop under the rear seat so the space between the wood seat bottom and carpet over the fuel tank can dry.

Thanks for the heads up.