Boat sunk but had factory foam

A guy from my home town had an early 90's Supra of some sort. They took on a roller and water and rolled it over on their vacation. They towed it back to the dock (tower and it floated). Rolled it over drained all fluids and let it air out for a day. Re installed fluid hit the key started checked all systems and went skiing that next morning. Used it just fine ever since!! I don't think they even made a claim (guy is an insurance adjuster).

Art, I am pretty sure there is some beer down in the foam from my college days!!

It's not quite as soft as the foam on your beer!
Art

There is foam under both of your floors still

So my 20'2" CC doesn't have foam? That would be nice to not have to worry about. My Supra is fully composite so no rotten stringers to ever worry about.

They don't mention tubes!! I wonder if I need to get my pro tubes filled with foam?

89Martinique wrote: I would like to see the no foam over 19' to be backed up, interesting...

It's not,here it is-


Subpart F - Flotation Requirements for Inboards, Inboard/Outdrive, and Airboats




FEDERAL LAW

183.101 - Applicability

This subpart applies to monohull inboard boats, inboard/outdrive boats, and airboats less than 20 feet in length, except sailboats, canoes, kayaks, inflatable boats, submersibles, surface effect vessels, amphibious vessels, and raceboats.



Discussion:
Monohull inboard, inboard/outboard boats and airboats less than 20 feet in length must comply with a flotation system called Basic Flotation. Basic Flotation contains the requirements and tests. Basic flotation is the simplest type of flotation mode covered in this regulation. It simply requires that the boat be manufactured with sufficient flotation material to keep it afloat in the event of a swamping. It does not, however, require that the boat remain in an upright or indeed any specific position. It may float, and usually does, in a "spar" position, the bow sticking up and the stern sunk. The requirements include some materials tests. Basic Flotation covers this type of flotation.

Very interesting quote and comment on page 8 of that discussion....

skutsch wrote: Art when did they start foaming the Ski's. Dad's 63 did not have foam.

I'd bet around 1968 when the powers that be also decided what switch knobs to have on our dash boards and bumper heights

ArtCozier wrote: My personal experience was that I took all of the foam out of my '65 SN when I worked on it in '67. Art

Art when did they start foaming the Ski's. Dad's 63 did not have foam.

Hollywood, removing the floors was easy; peel back the flooring and unscrew the screws, only problem was they were all straight blade screws if I remember correctly...

My guess...when the guy gave it throttle to get the noise up after the first wave he invited disaster. A whole lot of water can come over the bow in seconds especially since it was bow heavy from the first wave. He simply drove more water in.

Sure did, the foam in the deep part of the bilge between the front seats was water soaked. It was open-cell foam. I had the floor out of the boat for other reasons. {remember, the floors were not glassed over until about 1969 (??)}

The boat had lived its whole life outdoors until I bought it.

Art

I don't know how an insurance co. would react if one were to have a sinking on an old boat that had the foam removed. It would depend heavily on what date the flotation requirement was put into effect by the USCG. I know we have foamed boats since the early 1960s, but the early foam wasn't closed-cell foam so it behaved a bit like a sponge!

I think if the boat had been built after the requiremenmt went into effect, the insurance company would have an easy out on a claim. If someone drowned as a result, I think it would be a BIG problem.

My personal experience was that I took all of the foam out of my '65 SN when I worked on it in '67. One afternoon a friend called and needed to use my trailer, so we launched my boat and moored it out in the lake. That night just after I settled in bed for the night, I remembered the drain plug was still in the pocket on the back of the driver's seat. Of course the boat was on the bottom of the lake. I got the friend who borrowed by trailer to come help (in the middle of the night) to come help, and we horsed the boat into shallow enough water to get the gunwales above water, then I bailed it out with a bucket. Took off all the electrical stuff and put it in the oven at low temp with the oven door open. Changed all the fluids and went skiing with it the next afternoon.

If I rebuilt an older model boat today, I still wouldn't put foam back in it. But I might check the effective date of the flotation law.

Art

Even though he said that the boat had no ballast in it, I am going to guess that he had some steel plates in there. Steel will make the boat sink like a rock.

I have never seen a PWC make a wave big enough to spill over the sides or bow of another boat. I have two jetskis and the only way I can throw a large enough wave is to slide it or do submarine donuts.

Another angle to this is the status of the boat with the USCG rules. My understanding is that any boat under 20' has to have positive flotation. It doesn't have to float upright, but some portion of the boat has to be above water when it's completely flooded.

When they test our boats, we take a current hull, install a block of iron on the engine mounts that weighs the same as an engine package, and put old upholstery in the boat. They take a razor blade and cut open all the vinyl on the upholstery so that it can't hold air, and open all closed compartments so that they flood. Then they pump water into the boat and leave it sunk for a given number of hours. If it goes under, you don't get your approval to build and certify it.

Art