Pool noodle flotation
 

I have seen mention of people using pool noodles for flotation in their boats. Any idea how many it would take to keep a 20 center console from rolling if full of water?

Michael

I am certainly not an expert here...but my understanding in order to keep the boat from doing the turtle, flotation has to be above waterline... like in the gunnels and under the deck, not an easy thing to accomplish.

My thought is the pool noodles would be pressed up tight under the deck as the boat filled and be very close to the water line. I guess any flotation is better than none. Coming from a Boston Whaler background to a boat with 0 flotation has made me ask the question. I know a fully foamed boat in a SC is out of the question.

Michael

Buy a plb for 275 clams and call it a day.

thats right, and its almost impossible to find enough volume under the gunnels to give upright stability. If you boxed in the gunnels and filled with foam, you might get close to upright flotation


When I rebuilt my 23SC I completely filled the outside of the stringers. There was enough foam to float two boats :) BTW, there is a good amount of reserve buoyancy in those trapezoid stringers

It would be nice to be able to retrieve the boat after your rescue and you could have cold beer while waiting for the CG.

Michael

OUZO - where are you? You are the master of using the pool noodle for adding floatation!

Upstate NY south shore of Lake Ontario. No pool noodle exp but like the concept and would always have water toys for quest.

Michael

I did this. I'd have to look it up. I filled the tank area with foam and put tanks in the console. I also inserted many pool noodles. 20? More? I have an excel spreadsheet. I also filled the MASTER ANGLER cap with foam to resist turning turtle. It takes all that to float a 20 footer. At least my math says so.

I also put plastic fencing in the bilge so the noodles don't keep the bilge switch arm from floating.

Here is a PDF of the spreadsheet. And a ZIP of the same.

I have foam under the cap and in the 5 foot long fuel tank area. I say the fuel tank is full. But it just floats due to the lower specific gravity of gasoline.

It isn't a perfect analysis, but it shows how much foam I added to get it to be about neutrally buoyant.

Fish,
Very scientific and good data to work from. I have decided to place as many noodles as possible thru a hatch. I don't think I can get more than 12 or 14 total below deck. My 1969 boat was foamed under the cap at the factory, from deck level all the way up except in the rod rack area. Dollar General $1 a noodle.

Michael

Those cheap ass pool noodles will ROT in the heat and disintegrate in no time :mad:
Don't waste your time & efforts. The foam filled stringers and air in the fuel tank will keep it from kissing the bottom.

Thanks Fish, I am going to stuff as many as possible under deck. Not a lot of room.
My 69 was foamed at the factory inside the cap from deck up. No foam around recessed rod racks. Nothing forward.

Michael

Four years on, my pool noodles seem to be holding up fine. Perhaps there are different types. Reducing the free surface effect in the hull isn't a bad thing either in my opinion.

I probably have no business dissuading anyone from an innovative idea to save money but I must. I think the way to go is to spend the money on pour foam and find a way to get it where you want it. Even canned foam from Home Depot would be better. I almost sunk in a friend’s 30’ Ribo Runner once because debris from the bilge was sucked into the bilge pumps (2) and prevented the impeller from turning. The livewell drain line failed and we had water up to the deck in no time. In this case it was zip-tie pieces left over from electrical wiring work in the console that got lodged in the pumps – both of them. I have since adopted the idea that anything that goes into the bilge needs to be immune to producing small pieces of any kind. Anything that can clog or get through the strainer at the bottom of the pump is a hazard. They are designed to move water, nothing else. Since that time I regularly look over my bilge pumps and I have pulled small chips of bilge-coat paint and flotation foam out of mine. Wire insulation that has been stripped off and loose screws were in my bilge and have all been removed. I try to make sure that any work I do in the bilge includes a thorough clean up when I’m done. I appreciate the innovation of putting noodles in the bilge but they are not going to stay in one piece indefinitely. Sometimes reinventing the wheel causes problems that nobody can foresee. I say stick with what has worked well in the past. I don’t mind being a guinea pig but not with safety stuff. My $0.02.

I could not agree more about debris in the bilge. I installed a large access hatch behind my console that looks straight down on my larger pump. I can clear it in seconds if necessary. I also open the hatch when launching and under way to see if anything is amiss. My original 1969 foam is breaking down and there is really no way to remove it.
As far as the noodles if they start to break down I will throw them away, no big investment.
I guess I would rather look at pool noodles than a big void. Of course if I were removing the deck I would take a different approach.
In the northeast not many things break down because of excessive heat, cold is another matter.
Thanks for everyone's insight. I will report back.

Michael

Well I checked mine again today. The pool noodles are still fine after 4 years. No UV degradation in the bilge, I guess. And in the northeast, freezing is a bigger issue.
I hear that polyethylene foam is the best, but it is hard to come by and/ or expensive.

The plastic mesh you use to keep rodents out of gardens keeps the last 2 feet of bilge free of noodles. Right over the top of the 2 bilge pumps. It isn't perfect, but it is a lot better than nothing. I suppose fiberglass insect screen propped over the mesh might be better than that. But it works pretty well so far.

There are other bilge pump styles that cost more but are much more resistant to trash in the bilge than a little rotary one. I rebuilt the one in the 25 last year. I forgot the brand. But they pump trash uphill pretty well.

I'll take pool noodles and pop bottles in the bilge before empty space any day.

Most definitely the northeast has different problems than Florida...hell in florida rubber bands that are kept in the house that has the A/C on most of the time, are lucky if the last a year.

I didn't know there were options! I'd like to know what bilge pump you have. Since the tragedy of those two boys from Jupiter I have been thinking more about the need for everything to be ship-shape' that's why I chimed in. The sea is a merciless place to learn that something that seemed like a good idea at the time was in fact a bad idea; that's why I say go with what has worked in the past. I guess that my perception of noodles in Florida is not applicable in other areas - I've never kept one for more that 2 years before it started getting brittle.