What foam can be use for bouyancy??????

[MarioCoccon]

Hi: Ike, I found locally a foam tubes without the hole in the middle completly solid, I try it with me and they float more than the other one, cost me work to sumerge them. Know this is the problem I'am not to good with formulas and I try to get my results without luck to funny numbers. In overall weight my boat with all the teak he have added, the tall mast, generator etc have like a 1500 pounds more. The boat displacement originally was 6000 pounds, I want to round up to 8000 pounds. How I know how many foam tubes I need to maintain the deck flush with the water without assume the gasoline that will help, woods, etc, just 8000 pounds??? Please if some or you Ike can help with that i will appreciate, I have a lot of places goods for the foam tubes all of them in sides or under the deck. My father found a company that they can sell me the pin pall balls for .25 each but I still don't know what are the flotation but sounds better two me because they are stron plastic resistant, more cheap and more managable. Thanks again. Mario

Originally Posted by Ike

The factors I used are taken directly from both ABYC and Coast Guard tables used to calculate the amount of flotation required in boats under 20 feet in length. You should always provide a margin for safety. (a lot of manufacturers don't and they forget that production boats get heavier over a long production run because they keep adding stuff to the boats)

The big issues with providing more than you need are where do you put it? and what attitude is your boat going to be in when it pops to the surface? If you put it all in the bilge the boat will float nicely upside down. If it's all up in the bow, like on most inboards, the boat will float with the bow sticking out of the water and nothing else. So you have to think not only where can I put it, but also where should I put it. If you put it all under the deck on most production boats today, it will rip the deck mold off the hull. So think about it.

The fun noodles that genmar used were bought directly from the manufacturer and had no color in them, and were solid, not hollow. They did a special production run just for Genmar. I don't think they are going to do that for you. LOL.

[Toot]

$0.25 each for ping pong balls is NOT cheap. My off-the-wall guess is that it will take 50-80 of them to equal the buoyancy of a single foam tube.


Seriously Mario, just get someone to help you with the math and figure it all out. It should only cost you the price of a six pack.

[djwkd]

if your trying to go cheap,put in some plastic bottles,maybe fill the hull then seal it off (not a great idea,though)or,if its a flat bottomed boat,just glue on some Plastic bottles,milk bottles,polystirene,wood etc,though this would make it a raft (wich are great,i even decided i would build a raft for open seas!),wich dont sink so it is on the idea of making it unsinkable.