TOPIC: SeaFair Sedan Under deck Floatation

I am in the process of a deck, stringer and transom replacement. The builder made statements about the floatation of the boat with air between hull and deck.

Now I don't have a lot of faith in that concept as the below deck area had many, many gallons of water in there when I got it.

What have others done to increase the flotation. I don't want to pour foam as I have seen too many boats with waterlogged foam. Ideas???

Thanks
Wayne

capy235,

you'll think that i'm NUTS but "pool noodles" work & they don't absorb water.

yours, satx

My Glasspar (a Citation) was built the same way- With a "double Bottom" that was supposed to provide floatation. Of course, Mine was flooded as well... Also, if the hull is compromised, there goes your floatation!

I used closed cell foam sheets, cut up to fit in the 'bilge' area under the floor before I re-installed it.

Thanks for the ideas. I have also had the suggestions of recapped and sealed one litre soda bottles and water bottles.

One idea from a fried was foam blocks cut and epoxied under the gun'nels where the optional saddle tanks would go.

I had a friend with a glass X-Scow who had the waterlogged foam problem. (2 of us, as 20 year old men, could not even lift one end of the boat. Not even a jiggle. It was like it was glued to the ground! It must have weighed 2000 pounds) He tied many many milk jugs together and tied them under the deck fore, aft and all along the sides. Of course an X-scow has the space for that.

Your Seafair made it fifty years with the compartmentalized flotation and didn't gain a thousand pounds of water in bilge foam. Stick with the original concept. Don't fix what aint broke!

Your Seafair made it fifty years with the compartmentalized flotation and didn't gain a thousand pounds of water in bilge foam. Stick with the original concept. Don't fix what aint broke!