Thread: Need some help.. wood fore deck ideas

Your Chris Craft came with a plywood substrate, covered in painted canvas. I'm not sure if a laid deck was an option for the 1953 Express lines, but it would have been teak and very probably straight laid, rather then sprung to the sheer as seen on sailboats.

I've never seen a teak laid deck on this style/era Express, but it doesn't mean it couldn't have been or wouldn't work. The most important thing is the substrate which should be 3/8" (9 mm) plywood over sound deck beams. 1/2" (12 mm) could be used, but you'll pay a weight penalty and have difficulty bending it over the deck crown. Use BS-1088 or BS-6566 grade of plywood only. Don't be tempted with a cheaper grade, it'll cost you huge in the long run, because you'll have a decking attached to it, which will also have the same fate as the substrate.

The pattern you employ is up to you, though I wouldn't get real fancy. Real fancy laid decks are beautiful, but also very difficult to install. Use details and nice hardware to set off the deck, rather then fancy wood work.

For example, use the "boarder" rule when thinking about how to arrange your laid planks. What this means is, everything that sticks through the deck or is placed on the deck (all substantial items, like cabins, dorade boxes, winches, hatches, etc.) should have a border of decking stock around it. You can miter the corners or get fancy with nibs, dovetails, etc. So a deck would have a single row of planking around each deck penetration and along the deck edge. This reduces the "field" you need to fill with regular decking material too.

King plank treatments is another way to "fancy" up a laid deck, but Chris Craft wasn't much on fancy king planks, they were almost always straight sided, with the planks landing flush. Occasionally they were nibbed into the king plank, but I've never seen fancier then this, such as herring bone or similar. Chris Craft king planks were all mahogany and slightly tapered.


The best thing you can do is go down to the local marinas and look over deck jobs. Take your camera and shoot a ton of pictures. This will show you the basic rules and treatments.

Are you sure about the year of your boat, because my Chris Craft records show a 31' 9.5" LOD, 10' beam Express with the "X32-(sequence number)" hull number. There were not many of these made, but there are quite a few slightly later models around (RX's), dating from the early 60's. The RX models are wider, 11' 4" in beam. Have you found the hull number yet?