Wet Foam! Help! 14 ft Crosby Sled

[joethedog]

i recently bought a 70's Crosby Sled, a 14 ft boat with foam flotation in the floor. The foam is soaking wet under the floor and the boat weighs a ton. 95 % of the floor decking is still good and I don't want to have to tear out and replace and repair deck. Does anybody have any suggestions as to how to dry out the foam without tearing out the deck? I don't mind drilling holes in the deck to suck out, dry out weep out, evaporate...etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[Bob_VT]

Welcome to iboats!!

I will move this post to the restoration section and give you a great gift!!! This post is a Crosby restored by an iboats member so you will see what you are up against. http://forums.iboats.com/boat-restoration-building-hull-repair/i386-boat-restoration-crosby-sled-177052.html

[dozerII]

Sorry you have waterlogged foam, not good news. I had a 16' Marlin Satelite with the same problem. The only way to get the water out of the foam is to remove the foam. It will not dry out period. When I gutted my Marlin a piece of soggy foam went under my work bench into a corner and sat there for a year, when I pulled it out it was still soggy.
Glen

[rickryder]

True statement! The foam will never dry out.... sorry your going to have to pull up your deck,dig out the foam,replace the foam and install a new deck..

I'm not familiar with your model boat. Is it a fiberglass hull with a stringer system? You may have more issues under the deck re: rotten stringers,bulkheads and transom.... post some pics of what you are dealing with so people can help you through your rebuild.

[joethedog]

True statement! The foam will never dry out.... sorry your going to have to pull up your deck,dig out the foam,replace the foam and install a new deck..

I'm not familiar with your model boat. Is it a fiberglass hull with a stringer system? You may have more issues under the deck re: rotten stringers,bulkheads and transom.... post some pics of what you are dealing with so people can help you through your rebuild.

thanks for the feedback and comments, guys. I will get pics up soon. No stringers, and there are pics of almost identical boat here ahttp://picasaweb.google.com/mmullis/BoatRestoration done by member i386. I would like to attempt to cut 2 rectangle pieces, one in the front and one in the back, about 18 inches by the width of the deck... then remove foam from those two accesss points. Then heat blow dry/heat lamp until dry. and refill with foam and redeck those two areas. The entire decking seems firm and stable except for a small area in the front, which I will remove and replace. Is this at all possible? I am not able to do a full restoration. Thanks

[rickryder]

I would say to open up the deck to the width where your deck supports to the hull to have a bearing point. Try to dig out as much foam as you can....I saw on here someone made a foam ripper from a metal spiral mixer....they removed the bottom ring of the mixer and used the blades to rip up the foam that was in hard spots to reach.. Just be sure the wet faom is gone or your new deck wood will absorb whats left. Are you going to put in pourable foam or foam sheets from Home Depot?

[joethedog]

Thanks for the input. I haven't done any research yet on the replacement foam. Any thoughts and or experience working with either product would be appreciated. I was wondering if a wetvac might be helpful with foam.

[rickryder]

I removed most of the foam from my project and will be putting the blue foam board back in... It's closed cell foam so it will never absorb water. As far as a wet vac....I used mine for the small pieces but the larger chunks I removed by hand and tossed em in a trash bag. The pour in expandable foam is a bit pricey.

[Flashcat]

Other forum members turned me onto US Composites. I Just refoamed my 14' skiff last week. $62.00 got me enough to do the whole deck area. Beats the heck out of prices at the local marine supply shops. here is their site:

http://www.shopmaninc.com/foam.html

[joethedog]

Rick, check out the US Composites link. seems affordable for pourable foam. I will probably go this route. good luck

[joethedog]

Thanks for the link. Looks good!

[joethedog]

Thanks for the help... got some good info so far.

[rickryder]

I buy from US Composites.... just my boat is a 21' and has 11" deep stringers so pour in gets expensive plus I have a pile of the blue Styrofoam from a construction job left over....free foam is a good thing. For your 14' the pour in will be affordable enough.

check out what were doing link is in my signature

[tomtnwlkrs]

do you have to do anything with the blue foam? I am working on a deckboat and have alot of foam. Was going to use the blue as well.

[rickryder]

Tom,
The only thing I'm going to do is use a dab of Great Stuff here and there to hold it from rattling around under the deck.

[70crosby]

Wow, i finally found out what I have been fishing in for a few years! I know it was a Crosby but had never found anyone else who had one. I cant find the tag but the title says 70 Crosby and it definitly looks like these! Great project on that rebuild, lots of pateince! I ony have a 5.5 on ours, I cant imagine a 35 or better, I would think the transome would fall off or I would get airborn!! great site Thanks for the insight!!