1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Deck Mahogany Floor Boxes

The aft deck is coming together very nicely as more and more spray foam insulation gets covered by beautiful mahogany. I always knew I’d use mahogany plywood for the major wall panels, but for something like the last eight years, I’ve been pondering what to do about the transition from the walls to the original teak deck. Mahogany quarter round would work in places where the plywood panels directly contact the teak deck. But toward the aft end of the deck, the plywood comes down to contact painted aluminum where the original mahogany toe rail used to be. There’s a 3-1/2″ gap of white painted aluminum before the teak deck begins. There are also holes drilled in the teak deck, where Chris Craft ran the original wiring for the windshield wipers and searchlight. Patching a hole would look goofy, and I don’t want to start replacing teak deck boards.

So…what I decided to do was use the leftover 5/8″ thick mahogany boards resawn from the aft stateroom fascia panels and make a couple of box structures. In addition to hiding holes in teak and unattractive panel transitions, I’ll also be able to use the boxes as wire chases to get 120v outlets to the aft deck.

Clearing space for a long mahogany box

The box will zig then zag here

And it’ll cover this unattractive painted aluminum here, at the aft end of the deck

There’s still tape stuck to the teak from the big paint job back in 2013. That stuff was a bear to remove!

5/8″ mahogany boards…meet Mr. Tablesaw

Time to lay out the box

Box panel one

The zig and zag joints got marked off

A few cuts on the miter saw, and the box wall started coming together

Once the walls were cut, I made the box tops

This is going to look good!

Unfortunately, the camera battery died after this shot, so I don’t have any pictures of the final fit-up or when I glued the boards together.

After final fitment and glue up, I rounded the box tops’ outside corner and cut holes for the electrical boxes

Electrical outlet box is cut

That’s a good looking zig zag box!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Varnishing the Aft Deck Mahogany