bass boat floatation foam

[patrickj]

Ivee got an 18 foot cajun bass boat and i recently discovered that my floatation foam under the floor is soaked with water.
I cut out a 1 square foot piece of foam and weighed it... it weighed 4.25 pounds before the water was removed... after it was squeezed out of the foam i weighed it at .95 pounds. I discovered also that my drain hole was clogged so i cleared it out and pickup the front of the boat way up in the air and it poured water out the hole for about 5 minutes and it trickled water out for about 20 hours after that... so i lowered it back down but the foam still has a large amount of water in it.... is there anyway to get this dried out... will setting the boat out in the boiling sun do the trick? taking the foam out of the boat isnt an option it took me over and hour to get the square foot piece out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Aso the foam doesnt appear to be rotten and i dont think its been wet for long... its been rainy around here off and on for a couple weeks and the boat has been uncovered... I think the drain being plugged wouldnt let the rain drain out.

 

[Bondo]

Re: bass boat floatation foam

Ayuh,... Yer foam has gone from closed cell, to a Sponge...

If ya don't remeve it, it'll just soak up more water...

'n,... No,... There's No way to dry it, much less keep it that way...

 

[patrickj]

Re: bass boat floatation foam

the thing is... if it will dry out the boat never gets water in it and stays covered up... it doesnt leak while in use and always has a cover on it... What happened was that a storm came through and blew the cover off and i failed to get it put back on... so if i could dry it out i dont think it would ever get wet again.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: bass boat floatation foam

Ayuh,... Yer foam has gone from closed cell, to a Sponge...

If ya don't remeve it, it'll just soak up more water...

'n,... No,... There's No way to dry it, much less keep it that way...

The only thing I can add is that the rainwater is going to mold out before you can 'air dry' it.

Remove it or keep it .. your choice.

YD.

 

[patrickj]

Re: bass boat floatation foam

ok i have the bottom floor out of it and it appears that if i want to gut the foam i need to split the cap and the hull apart... how do i go about doing this?

 

[vcaptain]

Re: bass boat floatation foam

ok i have the bottom floor out of it and it appears that if i want to gut the foam i need to split the cap and the hull apart... how do i go about doing this?

There are hundreds of threads explaining it. It's not going to be cheap, or easy. I'd suggest you plan on a couple weeks of research before you start removing anything You'll need to take a bunch of measurements before you remove the cap and make sure the hull doesn't warp when you remove it. Also, figure a way to lift the cap, I used the rafters in a garage, others build hoists, it's up to you.

The only way you'll get all wet foam out is to pop the cap, remove the deck, then the foam. Then you can check the stringers for rot as well. Most of time if the foam is soaked the stringers are rotten as well.

People here love to see photos and they are critical so we can see what you are talking about. I'm a newbie myself, so I don't have much advise, but there are a bunch of people here who help us newbies on a daily basis. Good luck, I'll be following along if you decide to do it.