To soften the contact between the boat (and corners of the "lapstrakes"), a couple of years ago I had placed some of that 1/2" closed-cell sleeping pad between the wooden board and the carpet. Now, in replacing my well-weathered and gnawed bunk boards (gnawed by groundhogs keeping their teeth in trim), I stumbled across a ready-made roll of foam: 5 1/2" sill foam, used in home construction between the foundation and the sill of wooden buildings. It comes in 50' rolls and is rather thin, so I used a whole roll on each bunk, 4 full-length plies plus a shorter length for the middle. It fits a 2x6 perfectly and seems to provide a little more cushion than straight boards/carpet. Here's a pic: (still have some more stapling to do) http://www.todspages.net/images/LF-bunkcovering.jpg I used Monel staples (Arrow T-50 stapler). 5/16" was a bit too short, so I ended up using 1/2" staples. FWIW, Tod M17 #408 BuscaBrisas http://www.todspages.net/images/LF-name-BuscaBrisas.jpg