Replacing floatation

[Dave]

I am in the process of restoring an older fiberglass X-scow. I have most of the project figured out, but I need to replace the floatation. Could you tell me what products are available and/or user friendly for this type of project? Also, where might I acquire the material? Thanks, Dave

[Ric@Noah's]

Two part pour in place foam is easy. Mix and pour. It expands about 20: 1 in a few minutes. We also supply.

Ric

[boatpower]

I redid a 30 year old Glastron. The floor was rotted, so it had to be removed, but the stringers and hull were in good shape. The 30 year old styrofoam "logs" that filled the space for floatation were waterlogged and crumbling/brittle. I figured that the 'foam technology 30 years ago was pretty lame compared to today. Now, don't tell anyone, but I went out to K-mart and bought about 50 of these so-called "pool-noodles". They were on sale 2 for 2.50, so I only spent about $55, or less than the price of one gallon can of the foam mix. I have had a set of these noodles for at least 4 years; they spend 24/7 in the summer floating in the pool in the full view of ultraviolet rays of the sun. They never get waterlogged, and they have not seemed to deteriorate a bit, even tho' we spend much time "wacking" each other and the water with them. They will bend and bend, and not break. I figure the technology has advanced to where these plastics are far superior to the "marine" floats that were put into the boat when new. They "claim" that each noodles will support a weigh of 200 pounds, which I think is probably high by a factor of two, but is still excellent. They appear to be a very solid closed cell foam, and extremely rugged. I figure that being out of the sun's rays should extend their life even further. This idea may seem radical and cheap, but I believe firmly that these seem like an excellent way to replace the old floatation. A gallon of the foam was I think $69, and it was only good for 2 cubic feet, which for the entire boat would cost horrendously. I'm not advocating that anyone attempt this without making their own evaluation, but when I examined the foam blocks that were originally used in the boat, the foam used in these "noodles" was far superior, so I'm confident that I sure didn't make the boat any less bouyant than when it was new.

have fun!

John