Glen-L.com

Ok I need to install my floors now on my console skiff. From what I keep reading some sort of floatation needs to be installed although in the video not done. Whether it be foam or air bags if I do the rough calculations for a boat of this size I need 12 cubic feet of floatation space. I don't think there is even 6 cubic feet of space available and that's if I went edge to edge. Am I missing something? I was just going to use 6, 4, and 3 inch pvc in different lenghts sealed with end caps to make little air pockets but the most I could get was 4 cubic feet of floatation. Is it enough? I don't care about level floatation just basic legal floatation. Please help!!!

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Feel Alive!!!

Here is a link to a 50+ page pdf. document that will have the info you want.

http://www.uscg.mil/d8/mso/louisville/W ... 761_3b.pdf


best wishes on your project,

Brian

What calculations did you use? When you mentioned a "boat of this size", that makes me wonder. What does the boat have to do with the equasion?
Hell, a wood boat IS floatation. How heavy is your motor and steering hardware. Your 12 cu. ft. floatation would support a 225hp outboard. Do you have a 550lb. motor on your skiff?
A wood boat will float itself since it is made of wood, it is only the engine and hardware that you would need floatation for.
The tanks are floatation too. Gas is lighter than water so, a full gas tank will not sink. A empty gas tank is a air chamber, so it adds great deal of floatation.

By "boat of this size" I meant weight of the boat. I got the 12 cubic feet from the above websites calculator for level floatation. It's good to know that the gas is lighter and I didn't think about the gas tank itself as it will be enclosed in a box near the bow. As I say, I don't give a rats a$$ about level floatation. I just want the bow to float if it capsizes. It's only a 225 pound motor and the hull weight is 400. So assuming everyone is floating in the water , I only need to support 625 pounds.

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Feel Alive!!!

Are those calculations you used set up for a fiberglass hull, or wood , or metal aluminum?
A 400lb wood hull will float itself plus about 30% of its weight. So, 400lbs wood will really float around 125lbs of dead weight. The fiberglass coverings and glues are heavy and is subtracted from the floatation of the wood, if you can arrive at the weight of that materiel.
That 225lb motor will only need about 4 or 5 cu ft of floatation.
If you figure the hull to take care of itself for floatation, the tanks also take care of themselves, then you only need to float the motor . 1 cu ft of water is 64 lbs, so you can say about 60lbs floatation per cu ft.

4 cu ft x 60 lbs = 240lbs. That is enough to float the 225lb motor.
If you can fit 6 cu ft into your hull, then you are in very good shape.

I didn't figure out exactly how much foam I needed on my Console Skiff. Instead, I poured it into any cavity I could find. I used the 2-part expanding foam. Basically, I have a good amount under the sole in the bow and in the port and starboard sides of the long beams under the sole. I was also planning to install foam between the long-beams, but chose to leave that open for now.

Don't forget to make a passage for wires and cables under the sole before pouring foam.

I didn't think of using sealed tubes for floatation. I would think that it would be difficult to fit these in the available spaces of the console skiff. There really isn't any room under the sole of that boat. I would think that the foam alternative will maximize the amount of floatation in those spaces. It also really quiets the hull and make the boat sound more solid.

Dan