Styrofoam under the bow of my boat?

[DSFLY909]

I have a 78 Hawaiian and under the bow of my boat it looks like there is a large piece of styrofoam that acts as a support for the bow of my boat. Anyways half of it is missing and I want to replace it. Is it just a piece of styrofoam or is it called something else?
Thanks

[Hallett19]

The styrofoam is for if the boat sinks, the nose will stick out of the water, maybe ..... I want to take mine out, I have already taken some out to clear my subwoofer box. If I was you, I would take it all out and carpet it so you can get some tail down there or store more crap !!

[Tolly]

It is probably there for floatation reasons if the boat should sink. I had an 18ft Ranger bubbledeck and it had these little clear whoopie cushion shaped air-filled pillows all stuffed up under the bow that were for that same purpose. I have never seen anything like them before or sense. Leave the styrofoam in if you want to be able to recover your boat with another boat if it sinks, or take it out and use the space for storage, subwoofer box, or tail-tappin' and just hire divers if it ever sinks!!

[1Bahnerjet]

Hey Tolly, Bahner's have them too. two big Ballons under the Deck and not much room for anything else. I would take them out but then with my Luck the Boat would be swamped or the Bottom would Crack or something would happen. So they stay.
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Thats BANNER with an H

[moneysucker]

1Bahnerjet:
Hey Tolly, Bahner's have them too. two big Ballons under the Deck and not much room for anything else. I would take them out but then with my Luck the Boat would be swamped or the Bottom would Crack or something would happen. So they stay.
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Thats BANNER with an H Both of my southwinds had balloons under the deck. I would not worry about replacing the missing foam. We took all the foam out of a hallett bubble deck to make more room and lose some weight. That old foam tends to break down and will hold water. I have seen boats that were stored nose down and the foam absorbed the water and ruined the hull when it expanded. I guess it all depends on where you go to the water. If you are in really choppy water and don't have insurance, Leave the foam. Down by martinez it isn't deep enough to lose a boat.

[79TahitiCBB]

DSFLY909:
I have a 78 Hawaiian and under the bow of my boat it looks like there is a large piece of styrofoam that acts as a support for the bow of my boat. Anyways half of it is missing and I want to replace it. Is it just a piece of styrofoam or is it called something else?
Thanks I have the same thing, and had opted to leave it in, but reading that it may hold water makes sense. Maybe I will take it out and see what it looks like.
My question was not so much to save the boat from sinking, but wouldn't the foam help in choppy water to keep the bow up?
Mike

[Squirtcha?]

The reason half of it (the foam) is missing, is probably the same reason half mine is missing. If you ever need to replace the bow eye, the foam has got to come out. I pulled half mine out for this reason. That's some nasty stuff too. It just crumbles and gets all over everything. Most people you see are in the same predicament, or they just cut it all out.
I've heard tell some folks have used the two part system that you mix together and it expands and hardens to make the same stuff that was in there. Also heard of them putting too much in and popping the deck off the hull.
I'm just gonna leave mine the way it is.
[ August 27, 2003, 09:57 PM: Message edited by: Squirtcha? ]

[Snorider]

My boat has it too, but when they filled my bow wtih it, i think they had the air / foam mixture wrong - it is only about 2 inches thick, and feels like it weighs more than foam should - it just kinda bounces around in there when you go over waves...
I was thinking about removing it completely over the winter - i figure, if the boat is gonna sink, i doubt that little block of foam will hold the rest up... and, if i hit something serious enough to tear the hull in half, let the whole thing go, it would be too much work to fix ;p

[Beautiful Noise]

<======Help's keep you Afloat encase of this :) :) I have Air Bag's instead of Foam but for the same Reason :D
Steve
[ August 27, 2003, 10:43 PM: Message edited by: Beautiful Noise ]

[Froggystyle]

Coast guard regulations dictate that any boat smaller than 18 feet needs to be inherently buoyant. Meaning obviously that in the likely event of a catastrophic failure, your boweye stays dry.
If the boat is bigger than 18', you don't need it. In any case, it is there for buoyancy. It is not illegal to take it out, just illegal to manufacture a sub 18' vessel without them.
.02

[cyclone]

http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/45deckholeandfoam-med.JPG
i cut open the front bulkhead under the bow of my boat so i could use it as a ski locker and this is what i found. 56 bags of what looked like crack. several of them were busted open so the bottom of the boat was covered in foam tiny foam pebbles. what a mess!!

[Danhercules]

Tolly:
It is probably there for floatation reasons if the boat should sink. I had an 18ft Ranger bubbledeck and it had these little clear whoopie cushion shaped air-filled pillows all stuffed up under the bow that were for that same purpose. I have never seen anything like them before or sense. Leave the styrofoam in if you want to be able to recover your boat with another boat if it sinks, or take it out and use the space for storage, subwoofer box, or tail-tappin' and just hire divers if it ever sinks!! I got them square condoms too. 2 of them are flat. I am gonna take them out over the winter and make some storage

[ole war horse]

I have a 74 Wreidt and when I tore out my floor,it
was full of the foam and all water logged and had a ton of weight to it. I just removed it all,no problem so far.

[victorfb]

hey mike (cyclone), i new you wanted to get more SPEED in your, but isnt that going a little too far? :p
now i know what people mean when they say "ive got a little CRACK in my hull".

[Hemicbx]

My dad had an old Tahiti when I was growing up and it was also full of foam up under the bow. He cut about 75% of it out; mainly just for leg room and junk storage. We thrashed that boat for years and it's still going strong. No cracked deck, no problems.
Hemicbx

[Hallett19]

From what I understand that foam offers ZERO buyancy when the boat is floating, it only help in case it fills with water. I plan on taking mine out in the next few months because my bow eye looks like it need some help (here I come havasu barney!!) that, and I would not mind getting more room for some "off-shore drilling" if you catch my drift !! :D

[Heatseeker]

Hey Cyclone, when I opened up the bulkhead on my boat, it looked just like yours! Same color carpet too. Imagine that...
My Caribbean has big pillows. I can still stuff a ski, a paddleand a couple of extra life vests under there.

[79TahitiCBB]

So here I am fresh back from the lake here in Chico... I took a look at the foam, and it is dry. But my girl made a specific request for a sub so her and her friends could have a little more bass to dance to here on the afterbay in Oroville. So the concensous (SP?) is that the foam is overrated and keep the party going?
Noob,
Mike

[PipesClean]

cyclone:
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/500/45deckholeandfoam-med.JPG
i cut open the front bulkhead under the bow of my boat so i could use it as a ski locker and this is what i found !! That boat's a little small for the Florida Coast insn't it??? :cool:

[Squirtcha?]

Just in case someone's going to remove their foam, I thought I'd let cha know what I used to get it out with.......... It's a long reach and a pain in the arse to do with a butcher knife or hand saw etc. You get the stuff all over ya and it sucks big time. I used a shovel to get mine out. Just a regular round nose construction type shovel. It allows you to get up in there without having to be up in there yourself and gives you some leverage. After trying all sorts of different stuff I found that this worked pretty slick. Naturally to get out the last little bits, you have to crawl up in there towards the end.

[THE BOSTON SIDEWINDER]

IF YOU CAN GET THAT FOAM OUT OF THERE AND REPLACE IT WITH EVERCOAT 2-PART MARINE FOAM YOU'LL BE HAPPIER. THIS STUFF IS A LITTLE EXPENSIVE BUT IS MAKE FOR MARINE USE. JUST BUILT CARDBOARD FORMS LIKE YOU WOULD BUILD OUT OF WOOD FOR CEMENT, AND MAKE YOUR OWN FLOATATION POCKETS WHERE YOU NEED IT; NOT IN THE WAY OF BOW EYES AND SUCH. THE PART # IS EVERCOAT 10-5612. IT IS 2 PART STUFF. WATCH OUT THOUGH, SOMETIMES IT'S LIKE THAT "GREAT STUFF" FROM HONME DEPOT, IT EXPANDS A LOT WHEN CURING! AT THE MARINA HERE WE USE IT FOR GUNNELS, UNDER DECKS, ANY WHERE YOU WANT TO ADD FLOATATION. IT'S PROBABLY HUNDREDS CHEAPER THAN HAVING TOW BOAT RAISE YA FROM 30 FEET OF WATER!...BILL.