What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

[reelfishin]

I was wondering when they made it mandatory for manufacturers to use flotation foam?
I cut up a 1964 Sea King today that got hit by a car, there was no foam, only trapped air space below the deck, as well as no wood stringers, only glass tunnels. The transom was wood.
I also cut the deck out of a 1966 Aerocraft last summer and replaced the deck and found the same design with no foam, it was another boat with dual bilge plugs, on above and one below the deck. I've also got an earlier, I believe a 1962 or 63 Sea King with lapstrake sides, with an all glass lower hull and no flotation other than a huge chunk of white polystyrene glued up under the bow ahead of the dash.
I guess another question is when did it become common practice to use pour in foam or when was it first used?
So far its been my experience that the boats built sans the pour in foam mess seem to all hold up much better. I'd gladly take my chances and add above the water line foam if able.

I do seem to recall reading somewhere or being told by someone that under 20' needed foam and over it wasn't required but wasn't sure when that was supposed to have started. From what I've seen, every boat I've worked on made after 1968 and under 20' so far has had foam. I've had a few newer boats over 24' that didn't have any flotation. Boats older and under 20' have been pretty random.

 

[oops!]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

reel i jist checked the uscg rules at the top of the resto forum looking 4 a dateline 4 u.

i saw april 19/1977.

but that doesnt sound right to me....i thought it was early 70's.

a lot of the late 60's i have seen are no foam.


it got popular in the mid 80's as a structural reinofrcement, but when you use the pour in.....it cloggs all drainage holes, and no water can get out.....so its just a matter of time till rot starts....

bond-o says its just there to roth the boat......a planned obsolence

cheers bud
ooops

 

[reelfishin]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

I think I agree with bond-o on that one.

I've actually been more surprised to see how many older boats had some sort of flotation, even if it's just a huge block of polystyrene.
I would venture to guess that a 24x12x49 block of solid polystyrene foam would most likely keep a 15 or 16 foot boat a float even with the outboard attached. Even if it was just the bow that remains floating.
Its still better than a bottom recovery. I've dealt with a few boats that sunk, many that really shouldn't have. I raised a mid 80's aluminum V hull, open boat that was filled with foam from 6' of water. It had been in there for over a year.
I did another that was in over 10' of water, a late 70's fiberglass cuddy cabin which sunk to the bottom of the river. It went down after spending a night floundering after being either abandoned or cut loose. In both cases, they had flotation foam in the hulls and under the gunwales. Neither showed any signs of being buoyant till we pumped in air or attached air bags.
The cuddy was the easiest since all we had to do was to pump air into the cabin and pull the bow upwards, it bobbed right to the surface in only a few minutes, a pump and a quick tow got it fully afloat again. The aluminum boat took attaching air bags and a portable compressor to get it out, it was near shore and stuck in the mud as well. Once it broke free of the mud, it floated pretty quick. We towed that one hard and fast to drain it out and get it back to the ramp and a waiting trailer.
Neither had severe damage, just too much water in the hull from rain and a bad storm.


I've done decks on a dozen or more pre-1965 boats and a few late 50's Starcraft aluminum boats, so far, every Starcraft has had foam but not the pour in variety. They use molded foam strips and block chunks all about the boat.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

registration, and hin, were 1972, and maybe foam. there was a transition period of several years, prior to 1972, to allow the manufacturers to get up to speed. the same they do with requirements for the auto industry.

i do know our 69 cobia had foam, but the wooded 62 SportCraft did not.

 

[ED21]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

I had a '62 o'day 19' mariner sailboat that had lots of foam under the seats and the v berth. Of course being a sailboat, swamping it wasn't out of the question. Even though I never did, so I couldn't say if it was enough foam to keep it afloat.

 

[ziggy]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

i don't know what year it was mandatory.....
but my boat falls in line with the others.... the nineteen was made from 68 or 69- 80.... my understanding is they all had foam in them.... like this...
http://www.aristocraftboats.com/fiberglassbrochures/Incomparable19page4.pdf
it's predecessor had some foam, up in the fins... like this http://www.aristocraftboats.com/fiberglassbrochures/Funliner8-Teenpage2.pdf
(next two links go together)
http://www.aristocraftboats.com/fiberglassbrochures/1964Funlinerpage3.pdf
http://www.aristocraftboats.com/fiberglassbrochures/1964Funlinerpage4.pdf

don't know what year they started the funliner... 59 or 60 i think....

aristocrafts were also billed as woodfree....

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

My 1981 has no foam that i can find. The deck and top were just glued to the hull with the peanut butter looking stuff..
I can look in the floor storage hatches and see all the way up the stringers.
No sign of any foam...
Its over 20ft so maybe thats why.

 

[rickics]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

i started ripping the deck out of my 1969 Allmand and there is no foam in it, i am considering putting foam in with new deck

 

[Boatdood]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

Flotation foam has never been mandatory in any boat no matter the size. USCG requirements to builders is that they provide some form of flotation for boats under 20' but how that is accomplished is up to the builder. Therefore air cells can be used instead of foam but the test procedure for swamped flotation does provide for drilling some of those chambers to let the air out. The air cell route is tricky and not very dependable so most builders use some form of foam with the two part expanding type being the most common. It can cause problems with blocked water passages and such but it's generally considered the best alternative because of other attributes. Good builders take the steps needed to allow water to get around it. Because of cost and extra care required with the use of foam most builders do not use it in boats over 20'. Personally I'd much rather be in a boat that I know will float level and upright when swamped because of proper use and location of foam. I have performed testing on numerous boats for flotation requirements. It's pretty interesting to see how they respond when flooded. I like it when I can fill a boat to capacity with water and still walk around in it, fire the engine up, and take off.

 

[Bondo]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

Ayuh,.....

I believe it was Right after the people making the rot your boat pourable Foam,..
Bought their local Congressman, who sat on some Maritime Committee....

I like it when I can fill a boat to capacity with water and still walk around in it, fire the engine up, and take off

I thought We were talking about Standard Production boats,...
Not Boston Whalers....

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

The Federal Boat Safety Act of 1971 is what started all of the issues concerning flotation, plus a few others like starter safety switches, to prevent starting unless the motor is in neutral.

I have been surfing the issue a bit, but haven't really been able to nail down exact information on the flotation issue. This much I can say -

There was a load, hp capacity, and flotation standard in an amendment of the bill issued on Aug 4, 1972. The flotation portion of it was effective as of August 1, 1973. The information that I found doesn't say exactly what the standard was, but it did not apply to boats 20 feet long and over. That explains why Gary's boat had no foam.

There were a couple of subsequent amendments that redefined how loads put in/on the boat (people, gear, motors, etc.) were to be calculated. These changes were related to the flotation issue because weight, of course, affects floating characteristics in a swamped boat.

There was a siginificant change in flotation stadards in an amendment issued on April 18, 1977 & effective on August 1, 1978. This amendment required a swamped boat to float in a level, upright position.

There were also a couple of more amendments on flotation after the above, but they are not particulalry important to this discussion.

The actual law invlved in this is 46 CFR 181 & 46 CFR 183. In doing the research, however, I could not find copies of the actual statutes at the times in question, just references to them. I had hoped to find the actual language and/or background notes, which would tell us much more about what exactly was required at what points.

For info on current flotation standards, the following web pages are helpful.

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2007/julqtr/pdf/33cfr183.220.pdf

http://www.uscgboating.org/safety/boatbuilder/flotation/183-105.htm

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/education_safety/safety/boatwater/backyardboatbuilders.pdf

http://www.uscgboating.org/safety/boatbuilder/flotation/183-202-0.htm

 

[Boatdood]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

I thought We were talking about Standard Production boats,...
Not Boston Whalers....[/QUOTE]

Bond-O, I went back to the original post to review. I found where he mentioned production boats, but no mention of standard production boats. Maybe I missed something.

I've never tested a Boston Whaler for flotation, therefore that comment was not directed at them. My answer was not intended to promote any brand of boat, only to discuss the question as it was posed.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

Great info Jay.
That explains a lot as far as the way mine was built.
Hollow gunwales and self bailing deck.With divided ares below deck.
Air pockets for sure.

Glad i'm in the no foam,no rot side...

 

[reelfishin]

Re: What year did flotation foam become mandatory in production boats?

I think Jay has it with the Federal Boat Safety Act of 1971, that would be about the right period and about when they started to add foam to all the smaller boats. I agree the flotation can be any number of items but the addition of foam was supposed to make all of those air tight chambers still float regardless of how damaged they were. I don't really consider the foam filled skiffs like Boston Whaler and the likes as being the same type of boat or flotation. They as much use the foam for structure as they do flotation.

What brought this on was a neighbor who all but refuses to ride in a boat older than a few years old. He gave me a speech about how unsafe old boats and cars are. My response was that it seems his dad seems to have survived using them and he had long before he ever thought about having him.
He swore up and down that no boat older than 1975 had any flotation and would sink right to the bottom if it leaked. When I showed him the huge blocks of foam under the seats of my '67 Starcraft, he looked surprised as his brand new boat don't have any visible flotation. He said the salesman who sold the boat to him said that the wood on which the fiberglass was formed 'was all the flotation it needed'. It's amazing what they will say to sell a boat.

I'm not a big fan of blown in foam, but I do believe the reason we don't see the white chunks of polystyrene anymore is because its flammable. All of that wood rotting yellow foam is supposed to be flame resistant.

The best flotation system I've seen was the sealed air tubes in the gunwales of one 1966 Aeroglass trihull I had. Which would more than likely float the boat all by themselves provide neither were damaged or had any holes put in them. One drawback to air chamber type flotation would be crash damage. I think I like the idea of the huge chunks of foam glued in under the gunwales and bow deck the best for all around function, even if it gives up some space. At least in those locations, a fully swamped boat should still float upright. Most boats with only foam in below the deck tend to turn turtle when swamped or at best, float or bob bow up till the foam finally gets water logged or the last air pocket leaks out.