Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

[NeilMB]

My Featherwind (16'x4.5', 105lbs) is completely bare inside the hull. It has lots of space for people, but no reserve buoyancy. That feels fine on a 30 acre reservoir (see below) but completely bonkers on Lake Pepin for next month's messabout.

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After reading the recent thread on capsizes and Richard Woods's article on SCA, I would like to add some reserve buoyancy to make self-recovery possible. What do people recommend for installable buoyancy? I would lprimarily ike something safe, under about $150 budget, and ideally something I can get ready in the next few weeks.

Here are some possibilities I am considering:

1. Two of the Duckworks beach rollers. At 9" x 60" they don't fit perfectly between the frames, but I should be able to fit some fairleads to tie them thoroughly down. Just a bit over budget and reputed to be super durable. I calculate about 140lb of volume each.

2. 3 of the 48L buoyancy bags used in Optimists. Intensity sailing has them for $85 and over 300 lbs. of volume total. More flexible on placement and less durable than #1, but real products intended for boats. Will need some tie points fitted to the inside of the hull.

3. Edtbob (does saying his name make him appear) had pictures of closed cell foam blocks in cloth covers tied (?) along the flat walls of his boat. Looks like it would take one 4x8 sheet of 2" XPS and perhaps more sewing than I have time for. Given my skill level and frugal nature, probably not nearly as durable as the boughten choices.

What would you choose? Is there an option that I haven't thought of yet?

I am planning to do a capsize test on a local pond before the trip to big water.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you have.

-Neil

[WI-Tom]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

Neil,

good project. Lake Pepin is a big lake--it can get pretty wavy/windy, and you can be a loooong way offshore. My brother and I once had to help rescue someone from a capsize at the messabout, maybe 10+ years ago--he has a low-freeboard scow hull and it did not float high enough for him to recover single-handed in the waves. I had to bail the boat from the outside for him after he got exhausted trying to recover on his own.

Whatever you use, make sure to tie it not just IN the boat, but DOWN in the boat so it can't float up when water enters or a capsize happens--you knew that already, I'm guessing.

If you plan to do camping or cruising and think a couple of big duffel-style dry bags might be handy anyway, that's what I use for both storage and flotation. You can seal them up airtight, with extra air in them. Even with just gear in, big bags add a lot of floatation, and also displace a lot of water that would otherwise come aboard.

Tom

[Zane Lewis]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

That will cost you a lot of space, based on the way you are using the boat in that picture.
Possibly some closed cell urethane foam cut to fit under the seats, from the seat to the bottom of the Hull with some slots for water to get past.
Then if you need some more a solid block at each end say 12" High and 18" long in the bow and at the stern say 8-10" High, the full width of the floor and 20" long.
That will discourage weight in the ends (people) while giving you a seat if neccessary.
Z

[johngsandusky]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

I use inflatable boats seats, the rectangular kind that go in a dinghy.

[J.Madison]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

Try to put the flotation along the sides down low. When you recover the boat it will be on its side and the higher it floats in that position the less water you will have inside when it rolls back up. I use fenders tied under the seats, on each side running fore/aft.

[Ian McColgin]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

Do some capsize drills. You wisely have PFDs all around. Have people staying out of the boat - tethers are good - at first since ever ounce in the boat but not underwater is driving the boat down.

Whatever you settle on, I find it easiest to lie on my back inside the boat so the water is supporting my weight. Use the bucket or pump from there. Once the boat is mostly dry, bring your crew back aboard one at a time over the transom.

G'luck

[JimConlin]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

I’ve built a bunch of these are for grandkids and others.
The seats are XPS foam and are lightly glassed.
They’re the only internal framework of the boat.


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[john welsford]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

The foam blocks car be shaped to suit the particular space in which you wish to put them, they can be glued up out of whatever sheet thickness you want and cut to shape with a handsaw . I cover the ones I make with muslin, or as its known in some places "butchers cloth". Two layers, then paint with water based paint. Three coats.
Strapped in with webbing, in my case some second hand seatbelt material.

These last very well, the ones in my little tender are at least a decade old and although they look a bit beaten up they still work.


John Welsford

[MushCreek]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

If you can create a closed space to hold them, plastic beverage bottle are incredibly tough, light, and free.

[NeilMB]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

Foam it will be, thanks for the advice everyone. 4'x8'x2" from the local lumberyard at $56 for 8 cubic feet = 480lbs buoyancy if I can get all of it fit into the boat.

Under the mast step is my first choice and then a couple "logs" tied ow down on the sides.

[Etdbob]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

First of, I've never capsized either of my flat bottomed skiffs, and I've had 'em out in stuff I should never have been in!
The downwind "death roll" is probably the worst situation for these boats, and then you can simply lower the sail and row home safely.

Having said that, I do use 2" rigid foam wrapped in tarp material left over from making the sail.

I screw eyes into the boat and lash the foam in well with cord.
I prefer the sturdy blue board direct bury rated insulation instead of the really cheap Styrofoam bead board, which makes a mess.

An advantage to this is it gives me a better surface to lean back against. It also stays in place and gives no trouble car-topping and adds minimal weight. It is out of the way and doesn't seem to take up usable space in the boat. It is easy to remove for repainting or re-use in other boats.

Don't glue foam in, it will eventually lead to a mess and it can't be removed for cleaning or painting the boat. Lash it in.

I do have a piece in the stern of my Summer Breeze but never got around to fitting a piece to the inside of the transom of the Featherwind.

I got this idea from someone that built a gold-plater version of the Featherwind. They had floorboards and everything in that fancy boat. They had not one but two layers of 2" foam lashed in along the insides, and that boat would float so high on her side that she would not ship a drop of water!

If I was really worried about capsize, that's what I'd do, just add another layer to what I already have installed.

Do be sure to have a bailing scoop tied into the boat. Mine is simply a one-gallon plastic jug with the bottom cut out.

EDIT -

Install a bow painter. keep it coiled and retained by a loop of bungee cord at the bow, as seen in the middle photo below. If the boat goes all the way over, you can use this to help right her. Pull it out, loop it around an oarlock or thole pin or best of all the leeboard, and toss it over the boat. Swim around the other side, grab that rope, set yer feet against the hull and haul yerself up. That will pull the boat over.

Maybe you can haul her up with the leeboard, but if she is fully up-side-down that bow painter will be right handy.

Also, the bow painter is used to reboard the boat! When the boat is back upright and bailed out some, throw the painter back over the stern. Swin back there and tie a loop in the painter a few feet further back of the boat. Put yer foot in the loop and use it to stand 'bout waist high to the transom, then flip forward into the boat.

Wearing a good, sharp, small sheath knife if yer really worried about going over ain't a bad idea. Might need to cut away the halyard and downhaul to get the rig down, especially if you ain't the best at swimming underwater. me, I'd just swim down to remove the rig from the boat, mast and all. Pull it out and let it float. Tie the bitter end of the sheet off to the boat while you right her.

Uh, will your Sunfish rig float? I prefer wooden masts and yards for just this reason.

As a youth we often capsized a super snark just for the fun of it. Recovery, even from full upside down was a snap, just haul it up, no need to dump the rig or anything.

I have no idea how hard the Featherwind is to recover, and whether or not you'd need to pull the rig if she is upside down. I plan on pulling the rig if I ever turtle my smaller Summer breeze, it's easy enough to do and will certainly make righting her easier. That's the plan anyway.

I really should practice in warm water some day, and so should you!


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[NeilMB]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

I went for what seemed the quickest and easiest approach. I bought a 4x8 sheet of 2" blue extruded foam and built two "blocks", one for under the mast thwart and the other for just in front of the transom behind the last frame.

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They are going to be tied in. The foam needs some help to spread the loads, so I glued on plywood pads left over from building the boat.

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One length of cord on each side, goes up through two holes on the bottom, threw two new holes in the thwart on each side, then pulled tight with a bowline and a trucker's hitch.

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The foam block for the stern uses a similar arrangement but I added an anchor point on one of the bolts holding the rudder keeper. Eventually these might get tarp wrappers or painted muslin like John Welsford suggested, but this coming weekend, they are going to be redneck-chic in all their blueness.

[NeilMB]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Capsize testing is coming up tomorrow or Monday hopefully.

And there is a long bow painter. I'll try out using it to flip the boat back over. Thanks for that idea.

[kbowen]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

Some folks are now hacking self-inflating life jackets and life raft hardware with bags that start deflated, and (hopefully) inflate when needed.

Ken

[Etdbob]

Re: Reserve buoyancy for bare hulls: SAFE, Cheap, easy?

I hope you had a bailing scoop tied in!

You'll need it, she is gonna hold a lot of water when you right her.