Have you built a waterbed frame?

So a few days ago I was asking on here how best to put a front deck on my boat. Not getting many responses, I figured I'd just have to try different things. My main problem was creating something that was easily able to be dropped in and taken out when not needed, and didn't require fastening to the hull of the boat (don't want holes on something to see few weeks usage out of the year. ). With that said, hopefully this can help someone else.

Area to be spanned:



The waterbed analogy refers to the cut on the top of the bottom board, and the halfway cut of the top board so they "fit" together. On the bottom side is a mistake I made earlier, but it shows how the cut is made.



Here is the done bracing. The top will be cut tomorrow and placed on with 3/4" plywood. If there are any weak spots, I'll pull it and brace the area. Otherwise, I'll carpet and start fishing.



So this was done after months of trying to figure out how best to do this area. As you can see, I had to add some bracing on the ends of the cross sections, but overall I am very pleased to how it has turned out. Hopefully this can give an idea to some of you that don't want to spend a ton of time making the bracing for your boat. This was done it one evening, and in fact a chainsaw was used to make the cuts as it was a perfect width for the pieces to fit together. Hopefully someone can take this and run with it to fit something they are not quite sure how to otherwise brace!

Looks like a fairly effective and easy method of bracing. :idea:

My only concern would be the bottom edge of the plywood absorbing water, and beginning to de-laminate. If you can find a way to seal the bottom few inches of the plywood, it should last a long time.

With this boat, water will never sit that far up front. Especially with having it removable, I really only plan on using it on select weekends throughout the summer, the rest of the time it would be stored under a roof. However, if I were to leave it in, I think you would be correct in that something should coat the bottom of the wood. Great suggestion!