195 - Can I Drill Here?

[TheArk]

Have a ‘23 195S. Looking to mount some audio equipment in the starboard aft storage compartment. Anyone know what’s under the floor here? Safe to drill ~ 1/2 - 3/4”?

 

[XLR8ED]

That area gets damp/wet at times in my 195S, I would not recommend mounting audio equipment there.

 

[TheArk]

That area gets damp/wet at times in my 195S, I would not recommend mounting audio equipment there.

Planning to mount my audio equipment 1.5” above the floor, so not too concerned with it getting damp in there. Just about every storage compartment in my boat gets damp / wet stuff thrown in them. The port side aft storage compartment is accessed the least when we boat, so it’s the best candidate to for locating the audio equipment.

 

[XLR8ED]

Planning to mount my audio equipment 1.5” above the floor

Personally I would avoid putting holes in the floor.

Based on the amount of space in that compartment, I would likely look at designing and 3D printing a carbon fiber bracket to place the amp(s) up higher, with support feet on the floor, and I would secure it to the upper fiberglass since the seat would cover the fasteners.

The rack would be simple to design at Tinkercad - From mind to design in minutes

I would certainly print it for you, the only cost would be the ASA-CF filament and the shipping.

 

[kgower]

I put audio equipment in the rear port storage compartment on a 21 195S. I mounted everything to boat/star board. I never had any water issues, but we did lose that compartment to any other storage. It is usually just the two of us on the boat so not a big deal.

 

[TheArk]

I put audio equipment in the rear port storage compartment on a 21 195S. I mounted everything to boat/star board. I never had any water issues, but we did lose that compartment to any other storage. It is usually just the two of us on the boat so not a big deal.

Thanks for tip.

We’re trying to retain the rear port-side storage - being long and easy to access with the flip up seat, we use that storage the most.

Did some rudimentary measurements using a 2x4 rested on the wake tower. Looks to me like there’s about 3” between the storage floor and the lower hull. Just feeling the contours of the hull near the level of floor, it looks like the floor is level with the bottom most hull character line.

That makes sense - the starboard-side storage floor is the same depth as the port side storage floor and the battery sits a couple inches lower than the port-side storage floor.

So … my guess is there’s nothing but a few inches of foam and stringers under there.