New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

Hi all, just got into a new-to-me 17.5' Campion Alert (1981) with an '82 Johnson 90hp. Boat is in "good" condition, couple of small fiberglass patches on the bottom, motor runs great but I'm having it looked at professionally anyways. The guy had a new floor put in a couple of years ago and I lifted up the carpet and it's really in good shape, well glassed and attached. The only thing is (what I didn't know about) is that there's no floatation foam in it anywhere. I'm in Surrey, B.C. Canada so I need to know where to buy the
stuff and what to get. I can get the Tigerfoam spray kits but they're $800.00for 50cu.ft of coverage. I could get away with the mix/pour stuff but don't
know where to get it. Anyways, great forums and awesome help here. I love
the project forums, I would never have dreamed of doing my own transom
repair but if mine needed it, I'd likely give it a go now.
BTW, anyone recommend or not Git-rot? I don't have any rot in my transom
I can see, but is it a decent stop gap?
Just curious.
TIA.

Re: New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

How do you know there is no foam under the floor?

Git-Rot will be of no value.

Re: New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

Because I can poke my head under and look all the way up to the front of the boat. There's a space at the bilge area where it looks like you could store a gas or bait tank and you look in there. Can also see the transom as well.

Re: New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

I got all of my flotation foam at USComposites.com

Re: New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

You can fill the whole area with pool noodles from the dollar store as EZ has done on his starcraft. The if you ever need to get in there just pull them out.
Glen

Re: New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

If you have access to it, you could cut and fit pink or blue foam board from Lowes/HD such that it fits snugly into the space. Again, gives you a way to remove it easily in the future if you had to. Also, that foam board is closed cell, so it can't take on water. It cuts easily with a knife - or very precicely on a tablesaw. I've even routed the stuff before. Hope that helps.

Re: New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

i would go with the 2 part mix, adds strength to the hull. not sure on what size boat you have but when i worked for Yar-Craft, the 19 ft boats took a little less than 2 gal of both part A&B, but we layed a pvc rain gutter up side down for water drainage before foaming, and drilled holes about every 3 ft to pore the foam in then glassed the holes over when done

Re: New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

When I rebuilt my 18 footer, I bought foam from these guys: http://www.jgreer.com/boat-foam.htm

Shipping costs are also something to consider.

If you head down to the restoration forum you'll see plenty of opinions on flotation foam and a few good tutorials as well.

Re: New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

Thanks for all the replies. Yeah, I've been reading the restoration forums a lot! I have a line on 2 Dow floatation billets 10"x24"x96" that I could stuff under and probably tuck up the gunwhales as well. That give about 1300lbs buoancy. I have a 17.5' Campion Alert with a 90hp Johnson w/tilt trim. I think the total weight is around 2500-ish pounds boat and motor. I like the structural plus of poured foam but don't like the mess if I ever have to get in there again...though if I did go with even a partial poured/solid foam combo, I'd still like to source the poured stuff locally in B.C.

Re: New here, reading lots, couple of questions re foam and general stuff...

dozerII said:

You can fill the whole area with pool noodles from the dollar store as EZ has done on his starcraft. The if you ever need to get in there just pull them out.
Glen

Click to expand...

Seriously? There's enough buoyancy?