Supporting the front edge of decking in a V?

Well, couldn't stand it anymore - I hardly ever use the front of the my boat because the layout was so poor. It basically was a well for the anchor to bang around in and storage for the cooler. A lot of wasted fishing space up there...

I decided to put a deck in, but because it's both narrow and the boat's short (12') I didn't feel comfortable with the deck at seat height. Especially with some of the water I fish. So as a compromise, I built a half bench height deck which I think will be the perfect height for what I want to use it for.

The rear of the deck is supported by the bench with some aluminum bracing before the 2x3"s run across it. the two major supports run forward to the "V" of the bow, in an isosceles triangle, with 2x2" lap jointed across to provide support. Everything is solid in the platform area, the only thing that worries me is were the two major supports come together in the bow. There's no bracing up front to hold them up, and they're basically resting on bow as it comes together.

I'm going to add a few vertical supports near the bow, but what would be the best way to support the peak for lack of better words?

Help? :lol:

I don't know if you have anything to support them to on the base, but you could rivet L-brackets into the side and lay a piece of wood or aluminum across. I did it with wood and just cut out angled pieces of wood that attached to the L-brackets that I riveted to the hull:

i was hard to picture what you were decribing without a picture.. but this may help? this is how i did my front deck framing.. i wasnt finished yet but you get the idea.. the front and rear portion of the deck was secured into front bench and the front seat thing with some long self tappin screws.. with supports going horizontal and a few going straight down to floor of boat.. decking sits ontop of benches and decking.. i have no worries as its rock solid now..

House - thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not worried about linking the floor to the sides, the span is only about 5' long

DriftingRZ - You've got the right idea, you're framing out the area under the deck like I have, but you're linking the front and rear sections of the frame to the middle bench and a front (mini) bench.

I don't have that small "mini" bench in the front of my boat, so the apex of the frame - right now - is resting on the hull where the bow curves up, and would be about halfway down the bench where your's is even with the top of the seat.

I need to figure out how to work a camera so I can show you guys what I mean... :|

i used a cross brace on the bottom.enlarge the pic. to see it.odds are you wont be standing right at the bow so it wont flex down too much. come fall i'm going to lift my deck and make a built in cooler out of my bow area cuz right now its wasted space.i'm going to add foam,seal it tight,run a drain tube to my bilge and an 8" inspection hatch for access.should hold about 36 beer and 6 lbs.of ice :lol:

That's the idea.

I found another pic after pouring through the Build section:



This bracing is a little more beefy than mine, but it's the same idea. Looks like most people are using vertical support of some kind, I'm going to take some measurements and see about getting something under that peak.

If i didnt have the mini seat up front i would have ran 2 vertical suppors in front and then run horizontal supports tieing the fronts in witg whatever you have in rear