This article selection originally appeared in the February 2016 issue.
I know what you’re thinking: Why would I put carpet on my boat? Isn’t it just going to get wet, then moldy and smelly? How have people gone this long without a different option? Well, I’ve got news for you, disembodied voice in the back of my head: they haven’t! There have been options for a few years now, but only recently have they begun to get more notice in the industry. In fact, at our annual PDB Shootout Boat Test this past fall, very few of the boats we saw featured carpet as a standard option, a trend we expect to continue.
So what exactly are these options? Well, they’re all some variant of a vinyl flooring that is durable and easy to clean up in the event of an accidental (or deliberate; we don’t judge) spill. Most of the options out there are going for a faux-teak look. It’s not hard to see why: it looks great, pretty much no matter what. Actual teak flooring is not only expensive in its own right, but difficult to maintain as well. Plus, wood in general has a tendency to become slippery when wet, which is a condition a boat is going to be in quite frequently.
Granted, genuine teak decking is far more abundant in the yacht world, where cost isn’t a concern (if you’ve got the scratch to buy a $10,000,000 boat, what’s another 20 grand for the decking?). But since we like to have our cake and eat it too, many companies have developed marine flooring solutions that emulate the look of teak, but without its drawbacks. In fact, these flooring options are so attractive, durable, and maintenance-free that it’s a wonder those bigger boats don’t use it more.
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