To Foam or Not to Foam

[85_celebrity]

Ok I am to the point of re-foaming the boat. I was not going to re-foam until a buddy of mine that is a non boater brought up the point that the hull may flex and that would slow planing speeds. Is there any truth to this? If so wouldn't this also make swim noodles and 2 liter bottles just as useless as no foam at all?

 

[BMOLCHANY]

Re: To Foam or Not to Foam

I don't know about all of that but the foam is a safety feature.

 

[watermellonI]

Re: To Foam or Not to Foam

My reason for installing foam was so that if worst came to worst then I would have something to hang onto till the CG got there. I also found that when I put pour foam back into an area that was enclosed it made things alot stiffer and gave support to the underside of the deck.

 

[85_celebrity]

Re: To Foam or Not to Foam

The 2 lakes we use this boat on we could very easily swim to the shore if things went bad.

 

[tcindie]

Re: To Foam or Not to Foam

To be compliant with USCG regulations though, the boat has to contain a certain amount of floatation, so that even if it's fully swamped it will still float enough that someone could hold on (I imagine it would make salvage much easier too)

Foam is the easiest way to go about meeting the requirements. Apparently you can also use air bags, but not under the floorboards as I recall (was just reading about it yesterday)

Oddly enough, I am just about finished ripping out my floor and there was NOTHING under it.. no foam at all.