New Guy - Got a question about grassing boat

[Gregory Nagel]

First off hi from the new guy.

I picked up a BBSD four weeks ago and have been giving it makeover ever since. I am spraying the final coat of Parkers Coating in the morning. I have a sample swath of Raffia inbound and will be needing to decide how I will secure the grassing to the deck of my boat. I have seen folks use bungee or grass rails for the most part. For those using bungee how do you have the cord secured to your deck? Is there a source for the fasteners you utilize for that purpose? I have thought about using a snap type fastener. Was thinking a small loop piece of canvas snapped to the deck and run bungee through that. Or even netting snapped to the deck in a similar fashion and the raffia secured to the netting, or bungee.

Anyway, looking forward to using this site. Have been lurking for a while.

 

[Shawn Linn]

welcome new guy, hope enjoy your stay. there are a great deal of great bungee accessories available from companies like sailrite or other marine supply stores. I used small hoops riveted to the hull of my boat with a bungee termination at either end.

 

[roy brewington]

You can usually find the bungee and nylon footmans loops at walmart in the boating section. They sell them to add on to kayaks and are labeled for such. Plenty of other sources on line for similar product in stainless if desired. Footmans loops can be screwed or pop riveted to deck depending on whether its wood or fiberglass.

 

[gcs]

Get the screw on cable TV cable clamps, 1/4" bungee.
Screw the clamps down every 16" or so, use a knot on the terminal ends or a small SS hog ring to form the loop,run the lines of bungee so that you get good coverage, might need two or three short lines for the bow, and stern.
Lift bungee, place grass, drop bungee, done.
Uses half the grass, easy to replace extra grass or any other foliage, and your done in 1/4 the time as fooling with rails.

 

[Steve Sanford]

Good morning, Gregory~

I would use nylon eye straps - fastened through the deck with either screws or machine screws: http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=8788

I would space them every 12 inches or so.

I have not used raffia, but I am wondering if you might want/need 2 parallel rows of shock cord to keep the "grass" oriented as you want it. That is what I do on my gunning coffins.

And, I lash the thatch to the shock cord with a biodegradable baling twine - so I can can recycle it (along with the grass) when I need new grass - rather than discard a bunch of wire-ties.

You can finish the ends either with the loops and s/s hog rings or just tie a Figure 8 knot as a stopper. Either way, I would melt the ends of the shock cord to prevent unraveling.

Hope this helps,

SJS

 

[Mark W]

Footman loops = nylon eye straps = pad eyes. Rather than tying a knot at the termination point I would use plain old bungee cords. Then they can be used in kinds of other ways rather than just staying on the boat. Zip tie raffia to the bungee cords and attach to the boat. Should you ever get to a spot where you will be huntsman for out of the boat you can take off the bungee and help conceal you wherever you are hunting.

It is easier to remove and dry as well. Raffia gets heavy and freezes when wet. I have gone this route on my past 3 boats and prefer to many other methods I have tried. Much more versatile this way I believe.

Mark

 

[Dave Church]

Greg, here is a pic of "panels" that I built recently. My covering is 600 Denier with sewn slots for the camo. I used four different colors of Raffia, got a small handful, bent it in a "J" shape and slid it thru the top and bottom slots. No need for wire, zip ties, string, etc.
Hope this helps.





Dave

 

[Craig F]

I have two versions of grassing my boats, one is with grass rails and natural camo (salt hay) and the other is raffia attached to netting. Both are very effective, but the bonus of the raffia is I don't have to cut or pull salt hay every season.

I have some bungees attached to pad eyes on both boats to add additional natural cover.

Natural:

Raffia:

Both options side by side:

 

[Matt Decker]

Nice rigs