Fiberglass Swim Platforms

My teak platform is about done, and I'm looking to replace it with a fiberglass unit. Any tips?

What's a fair price to pay for an OEM or an aftermarket unit? Any aftermarket sources worth mentioning?

Has anyone built one themselves? If so, details!

Thanks.

ragboy built one from aluminum. Not sure if he posted the thread over here or just on the Tige forum, but he did it to clean up his surf wave. The OEM fiberglass platform was too big and the underside lip was cutting into his wave. Try a search for aluminum platform and see if it pops up here. I know it is over on the Tige Forum though.

Line-X the old one. And then a deck pad like Hydroturf or Seadek. I have that on my Vride now.
And I have an old MC swimstep on the back of my golf cart, with Herculiner on it.

I wouldn't buy a fiberglass swim grid for two reasons:

1.) wrecks your boards (I drop in surfing without the rope so it wrecks my surf)
2.) hit it on anything it will crack. Teak is great.. scuff and oil.

If its got black rubber on it, it gets hot on the feet

Line-x that bitch and but a foam pad on it. Thats what I am doing this winter..last season for my teak I am so over it!

Oh, and if you use Line-X, they can do it in colors that will match your boat. And spray it with no grit. The stuff is tough as nails & actually embeds itself down into the wood. We did a test on the bottom & it reminded me of the roots in grass as you pull up sod.
My local Line-X dealer has done like a dozen different boats over the last 4 yrs. Even the older ones look great.

I would Line-X mine, but it has a pretty good warp going on in the middle, and the pieces are starting to come apart. It creaks and pops when you walk around on it, and it's developing some gaps here & there. Basically needs to be totally rebuilt.

Found a deal on a new fiberglass one from a V-ride. It's on the way now. Got a couple more questions...

Any ideas what would my old one might be worth? Maybe $100-150?

What would be the best way to attach the brackets? It appears from the pics to have no holes drilled in it yet. I would like to use threaded inserts instead of lag bolts. I'm thinking of tapping and epoxying in these:

I've never done inserts in a swimstep. But have done them in a SkySki board for bindings..... and then ripped them right out when we rode it.

If there is nothing in the board for the insert to grab, like in most any board, then you might end up with the same results.

Maybe test drill to see if there something other than foam in there? Or thru bolt it, then apply a deck pad over the bolt heads?

I would avoid the fiberglass also for the reasons Ron listed, plus if you leave the boat in the water, it goes dirty very quickly. and all the chips out of it look terrible. /2 cent

Good point, I didn't consider the possibility of a foam core. I would think that the core material is something that screws can bite into, at least in the area where the brackets mount. How are they attached at the factory?

Really, I just prefer the looks of 'glass platforms. My boat has kind of a utilitarian look to it anyway. I also hate maintaining teak. I would probably Line-X it if it were in better shape, but I came across a good deal on a 'glass one and want to give it a shot.

Thanks for the replies.

I hated my teak as well. We built a new platform from 3 layers of 7/8 treated plywood. Had it glass coated at a shop in Cincy and they painted it black before the finish coatings. We put Gator Grip Bl/Grey and it has been fantastic. 3 seasons and still looks great. Adds some nice weight onto the back as well. We just used BIG screws and coated the holes with marine adhesive before puttin em in and all has been fantastic, everyone loves it and we get many compliments. The Gator Grip has been worth every penny, great product, 3 seasons of 300-400hr use and still holding up great. Don't worry bout the chipping as you can simply use some spray paint to touch it up and you can barely tell. IMHO you will love it.

i can't belive you guys my old correct craft teak deck looked like new and i only did the deck once a year.it was 15 years old when i sold it . my new tige is going on 4 years now and still looks new!

Maybe the quality of teak is better, because mine is back to dull and pasty looking about 2 outings after oiling it.

My new platform showed up yesterday, gonna work on mounting it this week. I guess I'll just do 1/4" lag bolts with 3M 5200. Worked well for 14 seasons on my old platform, so it can't be bad.

I've had Gator Grip covering pretty much every horizontal surface of my deck for about 8 seasons now, and it still doesn't look bad. Great stuff.

Just finished install... Digging it so far!

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