Adding Floatation to a NACRA

A 1990 5.5SL "SHOULD" have flotation in it like these:

I have not opened it up yet but are you saying this should be installed already?

pontoons are for pontoon boats.

hulls are for cool people 🙂

HMMMM? Yeah, I got no responce to that one Andrew stay cool I guess.

hahah.. thanks for the edit.

edited by: andrewscott, Jul 07, 2010 - 04:01 PM

Checked my boat there is not any floatation in the hulls. Any suggestions on what I can add for floatation that will fit thru a 4" inspection port? I though maybe those pool noodles or something like that.

Whatever you do--DON'T fill the hulls with foam! The foam will retain water and destroy your hulls from the weight.

Noodles are good and light--and won't make any noise clunking around. If you could get some bladder in there you can inflate, that would be good, too. Air is the best floatation.

You can get packing material that is really just air packets. That would work, too, but I don't know the durability of the plastic.

There has been a lot of joking about filling the hulls with ping pong balls, but that isn't a reality. I just get a kick out of envisioning the slick of pingpong balls it would make if the hulls crack in half!

packing peanuts would be just as bad!

We put two 15" beach balls into each hull.

andrewscott wrote: pontoons are for pontoon boats.

hulls are for cool people 🙂

HA....the pontoon word drives me crazy

Oh yeah, what about small mooring balls or boat fenders?

u would need a bunch of fenders .. they would add to much weight (IMHO)

I would think beach balls would deflate quickly in my climate

unless you (or your crew) enjoy blowing up things in your hulls ... :-O

andrewscott wrote: pontoons are for pontoon boats.

hulls are for cool people 🙂

I must admit.. .i left my cat on anchor last sat and went out for over an hour ride on my friends pontoon boat (he also has a 6.0 mystere) and it was great.

andrewscott wrote: u would need a bunch of fenders .. they would add to much weight (IMHO)

Yes it would...maybe someone needs to come up with one of those self inflating devices? 😆 a hydrostatic release so if the boat goes down a few feet it activates and floats back up!!! Thats how some life rafts activate on ships.

As for pontoon boats I often looked at them and would say if I were to get a petro chugging, BP mess making boat it would either be a pontoon boat or one of those Chris Craft style wooden boats $$$$

Whatever I use would need to fit thru a 4" inspection port.

I like the pool noodle idea. $1 each at Walmart. no issue with fit, and easy to replace after a season to keep things from getting "icky".

http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/boa/1887500937.html

Ha! Craigslist has everything I guess...but Walmart is cheaper 🙂

edited by: turtlecat, Aug 10, 2010 - 07:43 PM

craigslist is pretty awesome but Im in Houston.

yep. I was thinking of air bladders (actually what I was looking for on the net) but after thinking about it, if its a catastrophic event, whats to keep the bladder from being puntured as well? The noodle seems like a safe, cheap solution.

Btw, last I saw you just had a pinhole leak left. All good now?

Todd & Frank helped me patch that but I still have a real slow leak. The next thing we are going to try and add some filler to the resin and just paint the dagger well with it. But as I said the leak is real slow so I can sail it as is for now. I adjusted my mast rake and moved my weight forward last sail and it sailed like a total diffrent boat I was surprised of how balanced it was when flying a hull. It just felt right! When's the 6.0 coming to 10 mile?

I wish it were there right now! This weekend is San Antonio for a show...It just seems to go on and on. Glad your able to hit the water. I'm afraid I'm going to have to dial in my boat (and me) all over again. IF I get to head out, I'll definitely give a shout.

You going to pick up some flotation while your in San Antonio?

HA! At 7 bucks a tube - Wally world looks like a better alternative. The pool noodles are about 3" dia, so it should have enough room to bend and get them into place. So you adjusted the diamond wires for more agressive rake? Do you know what tension your running?

How many noodles would give adequate flotation? I would guess more than I would want to put in a hull.

Well NMMA requires 10% of "capacity" of a hull to be in flotation. I dont think that's the aim on this though. Pfd's would cover occupants and the balance is just to keep the boat in a neutral boyancy state. My boat is 420#, and its actually pretty hard to "burp" all the air in the chambers - So to answer your question - I have no freakin idea 🙂

There is another product other than the "pool noodle". Polyethelyne foam would be more quantifiable in its flotation factor, as its used currently in the industry for this purpose.

I have seen people floating around in the pool with 1 noodle so I think 2 in each hull would keep it from sinking.

just remember "people" are neutrally bouyant as we are mostly water...fiberglass and aluminum - not so much. Just things to ponder. Let me know what you decide on!

A testament to Nacra buoyancy:

A few weekends ago I took four people out into Lake MI with 15 - 20+ westerly's. I rushed the set up to accomodate the scedule of one of my crew. (He only had an hour) We were out ripping for that hour (two on the trap) and as were were heading back to the beach my wife asked "Why is the boat sinking?" I then felt the plugs in the pocket of my vest! I had everyone go forward and we landed safely. It took 6 guys to ease her far enough up the beach to drain the hulls which were full.

wow. i got no more than 100' (solo) before i noticed something was very wrong (plugs not in)

but then again, my boat has the most rediculious floatation foam i have ever seen... i doubt a flee could float on it.

See here: