Weight of wet foam

[Soundslikefun]

I am assuming my boat has saturated foam and I am wondering how much weight saturated foam adds to a 16' boat. The difference in speed I reach with 2 people vs 4 people is pretty dramatic and the additional 2 people are kids.

 

[scca vette]

Re: Weight of wet foam

I am assuming my boat has saturated foam and I am wondering how much weight saturated foam adds to a 16' boat. The difference in speed I reach with 2 people vs 4 people is pretty dramatic and the additional 2 people are kids.

When I pulled all the wet foam out of my 21 foot boat it was a little over 500 pounds when I weighed all the bags. `Keep in mind that not ALL the foam was wet so it could have been more.

 

[75TowerOfPower]

Re: Weight of wet foam

Yeah I had 450 lbs in wet foam and wet wood. Its very possible that it can slow you down alot.

 

[bonz_d]

Re: Weight of wet foam

Sorry I can't give you a definate answer but I can give you an example.

I have a 14' fiberglass fishing boat that I am working on right now. In the stern of the boat are built in floatation boxes. One on each side. They are appx. 2' long x 1' wide x 14" deep. When I received the boat they were waterlogged and with nothing else in the boat it would take 2 people to lift it. I now have all that removed and I can now lift the stern of the boat by myself. So my guess is that there was a 150+ # of wet foam in that small area.

 

[Cast-A-Way]

Re: Weight of wet foam

All I can say is that I noticed a huge before and after difference on my last restoration by putting in the new foam

 

[109jb]

Re: Weight of wet foam

A LOT!!!!! A cubic foot of water is about 60 pounds. The foam when installed expands about 25 times its original liquid volume so thhe rest is air space that can be soaked with water. So each cubic foot could have up to 57 pounds of water in it. Lets just say 50 pounds for easy math. When I re-foamed my 16 foot Sea Ray I used about 10 cubic feet of foam. That would be 500 pounds if it was all soaked. It pretty much was except up by the bow. I'd guess I had about 300-400 pounds of soaked foam that I tore out.

 

[Soundslikefun]

Re: Weight of wet foam

Very likely my boat could be nearly double it's original weight then. Sounds like I have some more reading and another project for this winter. That amount of weight must put me just past where the boat wants to be to operate properly when I add my kids.

 

[mogfisher]

Re: Weight of wet foam

So what happens when this saturated foam that is ecapsulated below deck freezes? Could it expand and pop the deck up? Or worse? Or is there enough give in the spaces the foam provides to keep this from happening? Either way I know the foam in my boat was REALLY heavy when I took it out. And it smelled baaad.

 

[scca vette]

Re: Weight of wet foam

So what happens when this saturated foam that is ecapsulated below deck freezes? Could it expand and pop the deck up? Or worse? Or is there enough give in the spaces the foam provides to keep this from happening? Either way I know the foam in my boat was REALLY heavy when I took it out. And it smelled baaad.

OH YEA I forgot about the smell! UGH it was BAD

 

[Soundslikefun]

Re: Weight of wet foam

From my understanding MFG did not use wood stringers so I think I am free from rot. Does anyone know if MFG used foam in the 1960's? I saw on another thread someone with a 1967 that did not have foam.