Now this is a sole!

We specified a wood sole on our American Tug 395, no carpet for us. They use sapele and maple lumber for the sole, no thin veneers, thank-you-very-much!

It somehow never occurred to me to ask what the sub floor was made of.
Every boat we have ever owned had some king of plywood base or plywood floor and I simply assumed that this was the norm.
Imagine my surprise when I saw what appeared to be a honeycomb composit subfloor in one photo.

When I asked, I learned that in fact, the subfloor is made of something called Nida-core. It is glassed into the hull and then covered with an epoxy coated 1/4" plywood layer before getting the actual sapele and maple planks. Wow!

The first picture is of American Tug's normal carpeted sole with carpet, under layer, honeycomb layer, sound shield and wiring... the second picture is the beginning of our boat.

Nice!
Bruce

That's great,Nida Core doesn't rot - it's plastic. Great core material. Cost more to use during the manufacturing process but pays out in the long run for the owners. American Tug, that's one on the plus side for them! I have always appreciated them as a manufacturer, building quality boats right in Washington. Maybe the next one will be an American Tug.

They should have moved those cables before cutting out that hatch!

It looks great. My boat was carpeted and when I removed the carpet to install an imitation teak and holly floor I found that they had used a low quality plywood that needed a lot of filling and leveling. Carpet hides a lot of flaws.

That looks great. When we were buying our boat we considered a few Nordic Tugs and American Tugs and they all had carpet. It just didn't feel right to us on such a high quality, top end price boat, it was a real turn off.

Dougcole said:

That looks great. When we were buying our boat we considered a few Nordic Tugs and American Tugs and they all had carpet. It just didn't feel right to us on such a high quality, top end price boat, it was a real turn off.

Click to expand...

Funny, we had the same reaction!
They seem to sell a lot of them that are equipped that way, there must be people who want their boat that way...
Happily, they are willing to build the boat with real (not plywood) wood flooring.
It is a small upcharge and a no brained for us.
Just one of the things we like about Tomco/American Tug.
Bruce

Carpet argument vs. wood is same in houses. Everyone feels very strongly it seems, just half for wood and half for carpet.

In homes, pull it up and you might see anything. Sometimes rot and you have to pull every bit of the sub flooring out, maybe even joists, and start over. Then the occasional home buyer gets the surprise of their life. Underneath the horrible carpet they find incredible hardwood just needing to be refinished. Those apparently were owned by people like my mother. She wanted carpeting throughout but it had to be on top of hardwood floors.