Flotation Foam

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FishCat

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I was looking into increasing the "floatability" of my pre-mod jon boat. However, from what I gather, foam would only make the boat heavier, not float higher. Is that correct? If the boat took on water, that's when the foam would kick in – to save it from sinking basically. Otherwise, it’s just more weight inside the boat. But I’ve read posts where people have added foam (liquid, Styrofoam, etc.). I’m just wondering what the real deal is. Can you make a jon boat float better? Thanks
 
Your first statement IMO is right,it's there to stop the boat from sinking.
If you make your boat wider,lighter,it would drawl less water.Not sure if pontoons lift the boat out the water a bit or not,it would be more stable.
 
That's 100% correct. Foam inside a boat does nothing to help flotation unless the boat takes on water. Buoyancy of an object is determined by how much water the object displaces vs. its weight. The only way to make a boat float better is to increase the surface area in contact with the water, and/or reduce the weight of the boat and its gear. The point of flotation foam is to fill all the holes that would normally fill with water if the boat sinks, which results in more water being displaced.
 
Where can I get marine grade balloons? Does Cabelas... Wait a minute. This doesn't sound right. How do I keep the balloons from floating out of my boat?
 
It depends on how unstable your boat is and what you're willing to try, but here's an idea... You could always bolt some PVC pipe down each side of your boat, with the ends capped and glued, of course. You can get pipe or conduit clamps to do this. The trade off is that you'd have to drill holes in your hull below the water line, unless you could rig some system to clamp them to the gunwales or something. But just to give you an idea, a piece of 4" pipe that's 5 feet long would give you about 27 lbs of flotation. With one on each side, you'd have a total of 54 extra lbs of "lift". 6" PVC would be 43 lbs per 5 foot section. That much flotation should sturdy up a shaky boat.

Edit.. You could always fill the pipe with helium too! :D
 
I know you were being facetious, but I almost want to try helium for XXXX and giggles. Its not like its an expensive gas. Its perfectly safe, just fill a buch of 2 liter bottles or something with it....

Wonder if we could figure how much helium it would take to raise a 500 lb boat's draft say, 2 inches and if its feasible. Would that affect top speed as well?
 
Anybody here from the south? I seem to recall a few years back Mississippi state head football coach Jackie Sherrill accused his opponents of filling footballs with helium before they punted. We need more folks in the world like old Jackie.
 
WTL said:
Anybody here from the south? I seem to recall a few years back Mississippi state head football coach Jackie Sherrill accused his opponents of filling footballs with helium before they punted. We need more folks in the world like old Jackie.

That coach deserved a "Here's your Sign!" from Bill Engvall, lol.
 
They did a show on "Mythbusters" about the helium filled footballs...turns out they don't go any futher,I think they may have gone shorter distances.
 
Well, Jackie is one of ours, lol.

Another story that has made the rounds for years was that before a game against the Texas Longhorns he brought a live bull into the lockerroom and personally castrated it right then and there with a knife in an attempt to fire his team up.
 
WTL said:
Well, Jackie is one of ours, lol.

Another story that has made the rounds for years was that before a game against the Texas Longhorns he brought a live bull into the lockerroom and personally castrated it right then and there with a knife in an attempt to fire his team up.

:shock: I bet the players were glad they were wearing cups, lol [-o<
 
Some companies make flotation pods that are welded onto the back of the boat. I'm not sure how much flotation they actually add though.
 

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