For those of you who ask about flotation foam.....is it worth it???

jigngrub

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It's like frickin' gold or diamonds if you don't have enough of it when you need it.
 
Fastatv

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Shew....thats a rough looking machine...ouch! May be time to retire the old girl. Doesn't look like an I-6 OB....maybe a 50 or 60 horse.
 
tpenfield

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I think that guy was posting on one of the forums this morning about what to do now that his boat had sunk. . . .
 
89 resorter

89 resorter

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The difference between him and the guy that chose to go "foamless" was that he got the chance to take the picture from shore.
 
kjsAZ

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the sad thing is if you read the latest USCG flotation test of new boats. Many failed and the rest was just acceptable. This included so called high end boats.
 
E

electric603

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I definitely think the foam is a good idea. About 20 years ago we were camping on an small island off Tarpon Springs, FL. The wind was blowing strong all day and night. The boat was a late 70's Ranger bass boat anchored about 30 yards off the shore. We had an anchor front and back to keep the bow into the waves. Some time during the night the front anchor slipped and the boat spun around stern to the waves. We woke up in the morning and could not see the boat. But then one of us spotted it. It was completely full of water. The only thing showing was the very top of the gunwales. We bailed most of the water out with coffee cans, there was battery acid in the water and it was burning our legs a bit. Once we got most of the water bailed out we tried starting the engine, to all of our surprise the batteries had enough juice left to crank it. We packed up and motored back to the boat ramp. If not for the foam the boat would have been a loss and we would have been stranded on that island.
 
Teamster

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Here is a link to a story on Great Lakes Angler,...........

It is a must read for anyone thinking about not foaming their boat,...

The people in the story got very, very lucky,.............
 
tpenfield

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I added 24 cubic feet of flotation to my boat when I did the recent bulkhead and fuel tank repair.

The manufacturer (Formula) did not know specifically how much foam was in the structure, nor was the boat tested for basic flotation, since it was beyond USCG requirements and ABYC standards. . . . They told me that they had not seen a 330 fully sink, but I figured the extra flotation can help in emergency situations.
 
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Bwana Don

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Teamster said:
Here is a link to a story on Great Lakes Angler,...........

It is a must read for anyone thinking about not foaming their boat,...

The people in the story got very, very lucky,.............
Click to expand...
That's frightening.
 
Teamster

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I wouldn't get in a boat with someone that wasn't scared by that article,...........................

Those folks are very lucky to have lived,................

And it shows just how fast things can go wrong,........

Who would think that a new boat would sink like a rock??
 
kjsAZ

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Teamster said:
Who would think that a new boat would sink like a rock??
Click to expand...
Read the latest USCG report about flotation tests with brand new boats from several manufacturers and you won't be surprised any more.
 
jigngrub

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Teamster said:
Who would think that a new boat would sink like a rock??
Click to expand...

He didn't say it was a brand new boat, he said it was his first time out on the boat. I figure that boat either had saturated foam or someone removed the foam all together (because nothing like what happened ever happens).

I don't know if it was sheer idiocy, bad boatmanship, or a combination of the two that lead to the sinking of that boat, but they lived to learn the life lesson that you don't reverse into waves.
 
Teamster

Teamster

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jigngrub said:
He didn't say it was a brand new boat, he said it was his first time out on the boat. I figure that boat either had saturated foam or someone removed the foam all together (because nothing like what happened ever happens).

I don't know if it was sheer idiocy, bad boatmanship, or a combination of the two that lead to the sinking of that boat, but they lived to learn the life lesson that you don't reverse into waves.
Click to expand...

Being as Lake Assault at the time of that article had only been being built for maybe 5 years I would consider it fairly "new",.........

That said, Yous are correct in that some bad decisions lead to the sinking,............

Also,........The original owners of Lakes sold the company to one of the shipyards in Superior,.....Not sure if they are still making them or not,...

I used to see a couple of them around the walleye tournament scene, Haven't seen one in years,................
 
jigngrub

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kjsAZ said:
Yikes, now I have to search through several newsgroups where i found the link posted..... Hope I can find it again......

Edit: That's not the article but the best I could find (yet):
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/gene...ssue-of-boating-magazine-article-on-flotation
Click to expand...

I saw that thread too, when penfield first posted it.

I did a google search for the article but got nothing. I'm really curious as to which brands performed poorly.

I do know there are quite a few manufacturers out there that take safety and their boat construction seriously and go above and beyond what is required by law:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M30nDtZ4iys
You don't even have to worry about your feet getting wet in some of them.

The main complaint I see here in the resto forum about floatation foam is the cost, how much does it cost and "oh, that's too expensive". Well, how much does a human life cost? Figure that out and then multiply it by the number of people that are going to be in your boat and you'll see that floatation foam is dirt cheap by comparison and very cheap insurance.
 
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