Vinyl vs carpet

[River Kid]

After months of research my wife and I have settled on getting a 21' Alexis Thunderjet with a soft top and raised back deck. :grin: :grin: I am thinking I would rather have carpet for the floor and deck, thinking it will be less slippery and quieter. My wife thinks vinyl would be better, and would be easier to keep clean. What are some of you Ifishers experience and thoughts? :cheers:

[timinthegorge]

I vote with your spousal unit! Vinyl!! Take a hose to it, and clean up is done. If quiet is a concern, try some rubber mats. And good luck with the new boat! Congrats! :smile:

Just my 2 cents worth... :grin:

[Gr8waves]

If the boat is purely for fishing go with the vinyl. If you plan on cruising in the summer, swimmin from it, the missus tanning in the sun the carpet is the only way to go. Vinyl gets WAY TO HOT to stand on in the summer. To clean the carpet: while at home sprinkle some laundry detergent on the floor, take the hose and soak the carpet. Then drive to the nearest car wash and use the pressure washer to clean everything out.

[Joe Schwab]

7 years ago I bought a Duckworth with carpet for guiding. I have literally had the floor soaked with Halibut blood and slime and it still is looking good. Get home from fishing, tip it up, hose it down and let it dry overnite. Use Lemon Joy occasionally to keep it smelling sweet. Hope to get 3 or 4 more years out of it. Had vinyl in a sled and hated it. Slippery and gets holes.

[hookem]

The vinal in my boat gets so hot in the summer that I have to wet it down to stand on it with bare feet.

[Yellow North River]

I have a 21 Northriver and I had the same problem vinyl or carpet. I had Bentleys make a removable carpet kit that snaps in. Great for in the Summer and when it is raining in the fall and spring I don't carry around a water soaked floor/floorboards....

[OceanBlue]

The Pilar would never ever consider carpet. Halibut slime and tuna blood would leave a stench that would never be removed. :shocked: Diamond-plate vinyl. Expensive, but that's the stuff! reduces the slip n' slide. I never fish barefoot, but Pilar doesn't complain about it getting hot.

[Jennie@ifish]

River kid:
All of your e mail from ifish is getting put in your spam filter, and bouncing back to me.
Could you get your ISP to fix that, please?
Getting flooded! :smile:

Jen

[T-Jet]

River Kid. I have a 21' hardtop Alexis. I put carpet up front. The Vinyl starts from the bench seats to the rear of the boat. You can have the best of both worlds! the carpet is nice on the feet when running around in the summer. The vinyl in the rear is durable and easy to clean. The rear of the boat recieves most of the goo from fishing. I recomend putting in the live well on the transome. It makes a great fish box! the problem is when the dogs come waltzing in the bow and drag everything in onto the carpet. It is very easy to clean though!

[McDuck85]

Carpet would be a bear to keep clean. I'd go the other route.

[Red]

Yellow N.River has it right but just happened to buy the wrong brand. :wink: No I'm not really goin there. :grin: :grin: I had TJet make my carpet fully removeable. Snaps in and out, and actually stays put. I use the boat a lot in the summer for the kids to wakeboard, and the carpet is great then. In the fall and spring I have the carpet removed in the back where I dream of getting fish blood. E-mail me if you want to see how in looks and works. You ought to be thinkin again about that raised fishing platform though. What type of fishin do you do? Will you be trolling with a kicker? How do you plan to steer the kicker?

[1pump]

A friend of mine has a Duckworth with carpet, and IMHO, I hate it. Not only for the reasons above. It also snags hooks and fir needles like crazy. graemlins/eek13.gif

[Thick-N-Thin]

If you're running a raised deck you want to make sure it's not slippery. I went with carpet for that very reason. Carpet is not all that bad as Capt Hook mentioned. It's all replaceable!

[MasterCaster]

We have carpet in our 19' Blue fin Sportsman and I hate it. Hard to keep clean and holds water too much. Water soaked carpet adds alot of weight you have to tow around. It also grabs hooks.

My .02 go with vinyl. Or like was said maybe a carpet kit that is removable.

Jon :smile: :grin: :smile:

[Rimshot]

I have carpet in my boat and I would never do it again. I went with the carpet for the exact reasons you mentioned...more comfort and quiet. It does serve those purposes but it is a huge hassle if you fish a lot. You can keep it clean as Hook mentioned. He is right, blood does come out easily, so does coffee. What doesn't come out easily is bait butter, grease, various scents, gum from your 2 year old, hooks, etc., etc. I can get it looking new again but it takes several hours of scrubbing. All the while I'm thinking "Boy, I wish I could just hose this off when I was done fishing and be done with it".....just my .02
Good luck.

[Thumper]

Anybody use diamond plate aluminum?

[Fishplay]

If your having the boat built. Pony up some extra boat bucks and do away with the wood floors.

My boat has full alluminum decking with rhino liner sprayed on. SWEEEET.

You can choose your color of liner so go with something light and it will stay cool.

As for quiet...my boat is the quietest I've ever been in.

Best of all; It will never need replacing!

[Thumper]

Fishplay, what a great idea. My new boat will indeed have that floor!

[Joe Schwab]

Don't know what kind of carpet some of you are referring to. Marine carpet does not hold water and add weight. It drains fast and have never had a problem with snagged hooks or fir needles. (I parked this boat under spruce trees in AK for 4 years) They vacuum out just like any other dirt. The only fish smell I ever had was an undetected silver under the boards for 2 months. Once it was located, no more smell. Oils will stain carpet however. I still prefer it over vinyl or diamond plate. Rhino lining would be my other choice. Great idea!

[ 05-06-2003, 07:06 AM: Message edited by: Capt. Hook ]

[TundraIII]

I've got vinyl over an aluminum deck. AWESOME. My floor doesnt get any hoter than carpet from what I can tell. I've had both carpet and vinyl and the vinyl is 10 times easier to keep clean. I actually use my 2200 psi pressure washer on my vinyl floor several times a year and it looks great.

[Troller]

I made a snap in carpet for my old boat. Just go down and get the type of carpet you want. I used indoor outdoor carpet and then bought one of those kits to put snaps on the carpet. Cut the carpet to size and install snaps in the carpet and flooring. Pulls out to clean easy. I have vinyl on my new boat and like it better for cleaning. But for comfort the carpet is better. I would order the vinyl then make yourself a removable carpet.

[River Kid]

Great suggestions and discussion. Everyone has brought up excellent points. Vinyl goes down, with a snap in carpet. The aluminum floor vs plywood is a curious approach espesially with rhino liner sprayed on. Anymore input on that? Thanks everyone for comments, its been very helpful, and most importantly it helps out with the spousal graemlins/icon_argue.gif alot.

[lost_sailor]

I have carpet. But, you're probably spending more on floor covering than I spent on my entire boat.

I do try to keep slime and blood in the fish box rather than all over the floor. That carpet is not the least bit absorbent, so it cleans up pretty well and is not yet funky.

When it gets worn out, I'll replace it. Cheap.

[snit]

My vote is for vinyl. I just re-vinyled my sled and it's great. Yeah, it does wear out, but I got 10 years out of the last stuff. The carpet I've seen in Hewes Crafts proved to me that I love vinyl. As stated before, the carpet can really absord some ugly stuff, and then really smell. Also, who fishes in bare feet??? One day in a hogline,I saw a guy get a 5/0 gammi buried in his heel with a 15lb king on the other hook!!!!! No bare feet on my boat. I don't need to take the chance of screwin' up fishing time (or my flesh).

[Webdog]

The carpet is nice but its time consuming to vacuum up dog hair. T-jet might have the right idea.

[Bob Barthlow]

Just replaced the old vinyl(10years old and in ok shape) with the new vinyl that Alumaweld uses now... nice stuff, good grip and easy to clean....I'd go with vinyl for all the reasons listed or look @ Thumpers idea of alum. diamond plate w/ Rhino lining applied to it. :wink:

They Snit are you still fishing the Wind?

The Cow is fishing real good with way less people :cheers: