Drying out foam

I am currently restoring a 79 SN which was swamped for some years and finally sunk for about a year. I have done all the checks that i can think of and have read to determine the health of the stringers and floor boards, all seems to be hunky dory. I have read a few posts regarding the foam under the outer floor and am unsure how concerned i need be about the foam being a bit soggy and how to dry it out since i dont plan on pulling up the floor at this point. Im relatively sure that this is the factory open cell foam so in theory i should be able to put a hole in either stringer in the stern and jack up the front of the trailer to let the water drain out then re-glass holes. any thoughts on this concept would be greatly appreciated.
Zack

Yup, your theory is in err.

My foam was waterlogged too. I dug it out with a small flat shovel, but still have some in the bow of the boat. I dug out below it though and the water did eventually drain out of the bow foam, so it's dry now. I don't think it would work by drilling the stringer at the back though since the foam is solid through the whole boat. I removed the stringers also and they were suprisingly in good condition, especially where they were fully glassed (bilge area). They were a little wet up front and had a little rot on one behind the rear engine mount, but they came out in one piece.

I let mine dry out for 8 months....didn't work. I removed the foam (you could press down with your finger and water popped up) and also placed a few perpindicular dams in the boat to keep water from running to the front of the boat.

Right under tha fiberglass was 3/4" plywood that was also soaked...more weight!

I have a new 2005 SN 196 and I'm curious to see which of the boats is faster/stronger now that the hundreds of pounds of foam has been removed!

JJ...should have that covered...pics and all!
quite a floor you have!I am thinking of partially using your method!
Jared...give us the srep by step and what products you used....awsome job!

Since this post is back and I am bored...

The original foam will dry out eventually if you remove the floor and then the boat in the sun for several weeks. But why not just go ahead and remove it. If you do remove it, I suggest it be replaced with pourable closed cell foam. the foam really does provide an importand sound deadening and anti-oil canning benefit to the bottom of the boat as well as floatation to make the boat unsinkable.

Now, one or two of the above posts mentions that your floor could buckle due to rotten stringers. This scenario is highly unlikely as the fiberglass around the stringers is more than enough to keep the boat structurally sound. The main problem with a rotten main stringer is the loss of engine mount integrity. The other secondary stringers main purposes is to prevent the bottom of the boat from oil canning as fiberglass composites are very flexible.

So given the above, if you replace rotten sections of the stringers you are fine as the weak plan of the joint is not critical for keeping the engine in place. However, it is important that the fiberglass shell around the stringer be repaired properly (since this is where the strength is).

Maybe I can put it this way: A fiberglass boat is a stressed skin type of craft, not a body on frame type.