Re: Floor/Foam replacement
I believe that filling a below the water line compartment with foam, is dangerous. <br /><br />The whole idea is to displace water. I don’t care how closed cell the foam may be, it will become saturated. You know this is true because it was that way when you got. <br /><br />Personally, I want to know the minute my boat is taking on water. I’ve had a few high water alarms go off on large boats. Seeing your floorboards floating is scary, but it means something needs immediate attention. Here is my crummy story…..<br /><br />I re-fit two small fiber glass boats with my own money<br /><br />The first one was a P-14 I bought for $100. I re- did the stringers and glassed both sides of a new plywood deck. I built a splash well, and re-built the transom. Limber holes allowed any water from the below deck to go into the slash well, were I installed an electric bilge pump. The main deck also drained to the slash well and there is a plugged freeing port in the transom so I could let water out while underway.<br /><br />This was my first restoration project. I built bench seats, bought cushions; I had a radio and stereo. I probably spent $2,500 including a 40hp merc I’d picked up for $700.00. I sold it for $2,500 with a Johnson 25hp long shaft I stole for $200.00. In other words I lost money and the work (lots of it), paid some dues and nothing more, but, I did it right. In the mean time, I had a new hull for only $200.<br /><br />Another glass runabout, this one a 16 footer. <br /><br />Some one had filled the hull with foam. The boat had been on the hard long enough to be completely dry, so, I left the foam. <br /><br />I new in my heart it was a mistake, but I was in a hurry. <br /><br />I sealed and painted the deck and hull, screwed down a couple lawn chairs, chocked in a cooler and a couple gas tanks, strapped down a battery box, bolted on my 40hp Merc, and went yachting.<br /><br />I sold that boat for $2,500 also, by the way. <br /><br />One night my second boat came loose, and hit a rock in the harbor. One of my neighbors secured the boat. <br /><br />The next morning I loaded myself and three guys who where helping me refit a commercial boat I had a purchased along with a permit to operate. I was under a lot of pressure, and we all needed a break.<br /><br />The boat was running great, conditions were good, and so I decided to shoot the channel between Maui and Lanai. Three quarters of the way, I realized that we were loosing freeboard. There was little water on deck, but the transom was sitting low, causing the bow to rise enough that I had to have one guy sit on the for deck to hold it down. We were past the half waypoint and sinking fast. I beached the boat on Lanai at a place were there had been commercial activity in the past.<br /><br />There was a hole in the bottom of my boat, and water had saturated the below deck foam, almost sinking us in the middle of the Au Au Channel.<br /><br />I found some liquid nails and patched it. We spent the night on the beach, and cruised back to Maui the following morning. The moral of the story, for me was, trust your instincts, if it cane happen it well, fix the problem before it bites you hard. Just one girls opinion.
