First off let me say I'm no rocket scientist, but this whole foam thing has kept me up for more than a few nights. I see all the work people have been putting into their glass hulls, what with removing foam, grinding glass, laying glass, figuring out various ways to keep water from pooling here and there, DANG!!! It's been driving me nuts! WAAAAAAAAAAAY to much friggin' work for me. I have always been of the mind set of "let the laziest man have the hardest job and he'll find the easiest way to do it".
So with that said...I've got a $2700 boat, a 19' runabout, that runs pretty good with it's merc 3.0L. I bought it as an upgrade to my 14" aluminum boat and I like it just the way it is. Unfortunately, it has rot. I got no problem taking stringers, cross members and all that stuff outta there to fix it right. I just never want to have to do it again. PERIOD! It's also just a fishing boat/pull a tube or wake-board kinda boat. I don't care if she's not the prettiest thing on the water, I just want mechanical sound/know she will float and get me from point A to point B, safely.
My solution: grind the hull where new glass is gonna be (I understand the reasons for having a clean area for new glass to bond to) but not grind all of the hull. Make bulkheads that will partition off my hull in segments. (Except the bow, that area will still have to be sealed off due to its open bow design and un-accessibility). Line these segments with plastic sheet (This will be once all framing and FG has been done of course. I will most likely use trash bags cut so I am only using a single layer of trash bag). Then use the cheapest piece of 1/4 in plywood I can buy and mock in a deck which will be lined in plastic too. Lay the deck down and commence to foam a segment per normal pour in foaming technique. Once it's all foamed, dried, etc...I will remove said foam from segment (which at this point I believe should be an almost exact shape of the hull and segment from whence it was pored, and admire my handy work
) and may/may not re-incase this piece of foam in plastic sheet.
I will then complete all segments of foam and construct a removable, water proof deck. At the end of my season of using my boat, I will remove my deck pull out the foam and let everything from hull, framing and foam air dry over the winter. (Not that it needs to, but why not?) I know there are logistic issues to figure out, which I will, but that is my plan.
Now, it's your turn to shoot holes in what I am gonna do. Like I said before, I'm not a rocket scientist, just a railroad conductor who wants to spend his limited free time on his boat with his family, looking at a different way to do things.
So with that said...I've got a $2700 boat, a 19' runabout, that runs pretty good with it's merc 3.0L. I bought it as an upgrade to my 14" aluminum boat and I like it just the way it is. Unfortunately, it has rot. I got no problem taking stringers, cross members and all that stuff outta there to fix it right. I just never want to have to do it again. PERIOD! It's also just a fishing boat/pull a tube or wake-board kinda boat. I don't care if she's not the prettiest thing on the water, I just want mechanical sound/know she will float and get me from point A to point B, safely.
My solution: grind the hull where new glass is gonna be (I understand the reasons for having a clean area for new glass to bond to) but not grind all of the hull. Make bulkheads that will partition off my hull in segments. (Except the bow, that area will still have to be sealed off due to its open bow design and un-accessibility). Line these segments with plastic sheet (This will be once all framing and FG has been done of course. I will most likely use trash bags cut so I am only using a single layer of trash bag). Then use the cheapest piece of 1/4 in plywood I can buy and mock in a deck which will be lined in plastic too. Lay the deck down and commence to foam a segment per normal pour in foaming technique. Once it's all foamed, dried, etc...I will remove said foam from segment (which at this point I believe should be an almost exact shape of the hull and segment from whence it was pored, and admire my handy work
) and may/may not re-incase this piece of foam in plastic sheet.I will then complete all segments of foam and construct a removable, water proof deck. At the end of my season of using my boat, I will remove my deck pull out the foam and let everything from hull, framing and foam air dry over the winter. (Not that it needs to, but why not?) I know there are logistic issues to figure out, which I will, but that is my plan.
Now, it's your turn to shoot holes in what I am gonna do. Like I said before, I'm not a rocket scientist, just a railroad conductor who wants to spend his limited free time on his boat with his family, looking at a different way to do things.
