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New Flooring for Sound Trek

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Better than new... Sound Trek is a 2008 Meridian 490 that we purchased from the second owner.  The boat had been very well maintained, but had been used (as a boat should be).  While the vast majority of the boat showed very little wear, the same could not be said for the carpets.  Sound Trek was a perfect example of why carpet in boats is a bad idea (in our humble opinion at least). Original Carpet: The above pictures probably don't show the extent of the wear on the carpet, but do a good job of illustrating the original carpet installation done in all new Bayliner 4788s and Meridian 490s (which are just newer versions of the 4788). Previous owners of our 490 had already removed the carpet from the pilothouse, but we didn't love the work done on that floor or the stairs leading up from the salon. The Lonseal flooring used had held up well and seemed tough, but the quality of the finish work wasn't great.  In the end, we just didn't like the look o

Renewing an old Princess Stove

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We enjoy extending cruising on our Meridian 490 and love to cook onboard.  However, we have never "enjoyed" attempting to use the cooktop portion of the Princess three-burner range used on Bayliner 4788s and Meridian 490s for decades.  Due to the recessed nature of the cooktop, it was impossible to utilize any "normal" sized pans without attempting to span burners or other similar gymnastics.  Anything other than small to medium sauce pans, just don't fit. The following pictures illustrate how the stove appears as originally installed. Original Stove Configuration - Cooktop Cover Down Original Stove Configuration - Cooktop Cover Up We are also big fans of cooking with natural gas due to the speed and control.  However, we did not want to go through the process of installing a propane system on our 490.  So, the next best choice is induction.  I began a search for a replacement stove with an induction cooktop built in.  Unfortunately, as the market fo