added floation??

[NSGhostrider]

I know its not sail related but I'm restoring a old 1971 chestnut fiberglass canoe that I was given and have almost completed the job. I had to sand all the gel coat off to the bare fiberglass, re glass the entire hull, new oak keel, new oak gunwales, new oak decks, new seats, yoke and thwart.

the previous owner in his infinitive wisdom thought that installing a fish finder would make lake fishing more interesting. but for stupid reason he drilled 4 holes through the hull and ran the wires for the transducers then poured a quart of fiberglass resin and loose glass fibers around the holes. to this day he does not understand why it leaked so he was going to throw it out and I rescued it. figured I had some spare time and was bored, it would give me something to do instead of spending my time online gaming all evening.

anyway, the reason for the post is when I first removed the decks in the bow and stern I found about 50 small 2"X2" pieces of Styrofoam blocks in each area. I'm assuming someone put them there to improve the floation of the canoe but I've never seen a canoe with foam in the bow and stern before.

has anyone ever seen this?? should I replace the foam pieces with some close cell foam, expanding foam, or shape some styrofoam blocks to fit, or leave the spaces empty?

anyone have any ideas??


thanks

Dave

[Izzy1414]

Gr,

The areas must be enclosed since you didn't find the foam until you removed the decks? I see no reason not to have extra flotation there if that is the case (the space is unusable for anything else). And since you never see it, use whatever closed cell foam you can find or reuse the original. Just my cent and a half (probably not worth a full 2 )