Water Logged Foam... What are my options?

Chris,
First the good news: you found a great site with plenty of knowledgeable people that can help. Welcome!

Now for the bad news:! I don't know of any way to get the water out without removing the floor and foam. People have reported wet foam in boats after years of sitting in dry storage. I'm glad you read the thread. It's a long one and gives you a idea of what really needs to be done to the boat. It really isn't that bad of a job. Just time and some money but that's what owning a boat is all about!!

Get us some pictures!

Welcome aboard! No worries...use it till you take the plunge. It may have been in there longer than you'd guess.

Here is a pic of the boat...

Thanks for the advice on running it... I guess I'd better get ready for some work or find some cash to pay someone else to do it! :-P

Chris

What's a good test for the stringers? They are covered in glass as well, everything feels firm when I knock on it with a screwdriver handle, but I'm afraid to whack it too hard before the end of the season... :-)
Best to let it go until I'm ready to open the can of worms?
Chris

Edit: I heard from a guy at a marine shop that you can use acetone to get the water out - has anyone heard of this or tried it?

BuffaloBFN wrote: TRB's idea of cutting the glass off of 1 side for inspection is interesting, but may be hard to do w/o causing more damage.

Actually, it was surprisingly easy with an angle grinder. I used this technique on my Tique.

Naturally, the floor and foam were already out at this point. Best to keep using as is and start preparing for an overhaul after the season is over. Once the floor and foam are out, you'll have a better idea of how far the damage extends.

Use a diamond wheel on that angle grinder, cuts like butter and doesnt wear down best 16 bucks I spent on the project...

Chris,

Nice boat!!

My 73 had wet foam and bad stringers. The project was alot of work but well worth it. You will also notice that the wet foam is heavy. So by removing it the boats performance will increase. I had a 30 gal. trash container when I first filled it with wet smelly foam I could't lift it. Very Heavy. There was about 8 of these containers full total. Also when you remove your foam make sure you remove it all even the stuf way upfront. A 6" drywall trowel worked great for me. I could cut the foam using the trowel into sections then use the trowel to pop out the sections. Try to remove your stringers in one piece if posible to use as templates.

I'll have it out on the lake this weekend - I'll snap some more pics of it and post them for you all :-)

Sounds like I'm in for a good time over the winter!

Chris

Chris73SkiNauti wrote: I'll have it out on the lake this weekend - I'll snap some more pics of it and post them for you all :-) Sounds like I'm in for a good time over the winter! Chris

It took me 250 man hours to replace the floor and re engineer the interior. I had soaked foam, but no rot on my stringers. I was lucky. I think I dodged a bullet by only having like 200 hours on the boat when I bought it in like 01. Otherwise, had my boat had more hours on it, I bet I would have needed to replace all the stringers.

kevin,

Here is a shot mostly of my navigator, Farley, but you can see a little of what I did.


The rear seat was completely new, replicated in new wood, foam and tri color vinyl. The wood was all fiberglass resined to ensure waterproofness.   The floor was a crazy job, all ply now, resined to keep it good for genererations to come. But the real engineering feat was getting rid of the bench style seat with no back on the passenger side for a spotter's seat. I hated that idea, so we tried to replicate the newer type nautique's bench, with my own spin on it.   I used a captains seat from a Mariah that was new, so I saw no need to recover it, and the passenger corner wraparound bench was nearly the biggest single feat on the redesign of the bait. 2 normal sized people (usually a couple) can fit there.

I know I have film pictures of the redo, before, during and after the restomod, but not on my digital camera right now.

Expanding a bit on what Pete said, I found epoxy to be much easier to work with!

Thanks Pete!   

BuffaloBFN wrote: Expanding a bit on what Pete said, I found epoxy to be much easier to work with! Thanks Pete!

Just curious guys, what is easier about the epoxy over poly resin?

Alan, I find that using the metering pumps with the epoxy is more precise than guessing how many drops of catalyst needs to go into a batch of polyester. I've inadvertently made some real HOT mixes of poly!!!!

I can say that in the 6 or 7 years since I have done the job, that there is no sign of rot in any of the wood.

Poly or epoxy I have no clue as to what I really used. My guess is that it was poly. I do know that it worked quite well.

Kevin, I will get a picture of that front seat to you. I will find my 35mm pics and scan it at work this week.

I used coated deck screws and then I completely covered them in resin. No metal was left exposed unless it was SS or aluminum.

They were drops, so yes, I must have used polyester.

Yes, I really need to load some pics up. Too bad this summer was shot with my home buying experience.

I still have yet to get up to the cottage and get the timing on the boat right. I hope to get up there in 3 weeks. I kinda made it my vow to get it running as it should before I put it away so that it is 100% ready to roll next spring.

This may be the first summer I have not waterskied in like 27 years if I don't get it rolling pretty soon.