Can anyone tell me how much foam I would need to give an older model Clark abalone CC positive bouyancy.
I have noted that the forward thwart is foam filled.
Clark's current model 4.1 CC is listed at 200kg, I suspect the earlier models were a little less as they appear to have lower freeboard.
Yamaha 40 is about 90 kg
3 blokes with esky, gear,fuel is about 450kg.
So I figure 700-750 kg would be the all up weight.
Can I fit enough bouyancy material under the floor to float 750kgs????
Depends if you want to achieve level or basic, for basic you won’t need to take into the account the people.
And if u are chasing level well that means you won’t be able to put all the foam under the floor, you will need to side panel or something similar.
Normally 1 cm3 of foam will support 1 ton. Depending on the foam.
Hi Rando
Take a look at this link at the Marine and Safety Tasmania web site which deals with retro fitting foam for positive bouyancy
http://www.mast.tas.gov.au/domino/ma...df?OpenElement
Cheers
Why dont you just fit those blow up tubes along both sides of the boat.
Probably the easiest and cheapest and I doubt that you could fit enough foam in the available spots high up enough to be really useful in the boat anyway.
Just my thoughts but maybe gives you another way to solve the problem.
Cheers
Chimo
What could go wrong.......................
Chimo
Do you mean the sponsons they use for inflatable boats or something else?
rando
I researched a manufacturer of those pool noodles today and found they also manufacture Kick-boards, and other swim accessories of the same material.
So I am investigating whether fixing say 40mm thick strips of that all the way around the inside freeboard would be a solution.
That should be about 0.2 cubic metre of foam above the waterline.
with the foam in the thwart and some under the floor I must be getting close to positive bouyancy.
im with chimo on that one have seen them b4 and they look the go m8....other wise lots of plastic milk bottles
Rado
I'm thinking of ones that clip to the outside and they are probably 30cm / 40 cm or so in diam.
Do a bit of searching and you'll find them.
I think F & B did a story on them a while ago if I remember correctly, but hell as a GOM, who knows where I saw them?
Cheers
Chimo
What could go wrong.......................
I thinbk this is the product your talking about Chimo. If I had a tinny and was using it outside I would be fitting a set in a heartbeat. I am even considering fitting a set to a 445F that does a lot of bar crossings and fishes very wide for a little boat.
As far as foam is concerned, microlen, made at Gosford, is the best product.
http://www.tfifoam.com.au/product.htm
There are some fantastic posts by one of our members from Tassie, Snelly 1971, on the use of this product, from memory he enclosed microlen on his large ali boat to increase PF.
Do a search for 'microlen', will turn up the various threads concerning its' usage.
I cut a large sheet (2.4m x 1.2m) into wide strips and forced them into the gunnels of my 4.2 tinnie `after a bar 'mishap', well worth the investment IMHO, tho' I hope to never test it! I had about 12.5% of the sheet left over, from memory the sheet was about $270.
Cheers.
Hi Guys
had a quick look at F & B and I think this covers it
Cheershttp://www.seamedia.com.au/sea_library/surveys.php
Chimo
Introducing our first report on an
invention that whilst not
completely original, is nevertheless
one of the most effective new safety
aids for small tinnies we’ve
encountered in decades. It’s simple,
durable, cost effective and it works.
This could do for small boats what
the wine cask did for the wine
industry – and its inventor!
We first heard about Air-O-Float
Stabilizers from readers in different
parts of Australia who were so pleased
with this new product, we were
encouraged to check it out for
ourselves.
As you can see on these pages, we
subsequently tracked down the system,
and had it installed on our brand new
Stessl dory, the fishing boat we are
using with the new diesel mothership
project. To say that the Stessl is the
lynch pin of the project is an
understatement, as we have gone to
inordinate lengths to develop what is
the fifth dory in a series we’ve
developed over the last 4 or 5 years
through the pages of F&B.
This is a very special boat, with a
degree of sophistication unlikely to be
found in many other small production
craft in Australia. It started life as a
standard Stessl 3.4 m Edge Tracker
Vagabond, before being fitted out to
our special needs by the team at ADM
Marine at Hope Harbour.
This boat is destined to fish places
ranging from the Kimberleys in the
west, to Lady Musgrave Island in the
east, and from the Gulf in the north to
the Clyde River at Nelligen in the
south, so it’s been created with a very
diverse range of tasks in mind – all of
which are common to thousands of
boatowners and readers across
Australia who love small craft and
target fish species ranging from trout to
barramundi.
Like so many of our readers, we too
are very safety conscious in small
craft, and in the northern waters, aware
of the growing menace from
crocodiles, let alone the perennial
dangers of small craft capsizes and
sinkings – all of which can ruin a
perfectly good day’s fishing!
The problem with all small craft is
just that –
they are all small craft! As
such, we tend to forget sometimes
what they are, and take them into
16
AIR-O-FLOAT STABILIZERS!
Fisherman & Boatowner
F&B’s
Small Craft
Section
Copyright SEA Media Pty Ltd (F&B#62 - 2/2001) from www.seamedia.com.au
also looking to build a
lifeboat, should the worst ever
happen offshore.
Initial Stessl Trials
As you
can see in the photographs,
the initial trials with the Stessl
without
the stabilisers, was
moderately successful – but
only just.
Even with the deeper ‘hire
boat’ safety seats, the Stessl
was an ungainly, unstable
survival platform to say the
least.
Whilst it would clearly
support the crew of three (see
pic) sitting on it, the trim was
sensitive and it was felt that in
choppy or rough water, it
would be extremely difficult
to keep all three bodies on the
bottom of the boat whilst it
was in an upside down
position.
Two people were much
better, and with Glenn Sanders
and his son Evan, was
tolerably acceptable – but
remember, this is a boat
without the outboard, and ancillary
gear such as you would have if the
battery was locked into the boat by the
tie downs that you need when the boat
is working normally.
Left in the upright position, as if the
boat had been swamped by a bigger
wave, the situation was very similar,
although two people again stood a fair
chance of staying afloat in the boat.
Armed with a bit of cunning and a
bucket, we discovered that one person
inside the boat could bail it right out
ready to go again, providing the
second person trod water and pushed
the crocs and sharks off with his feet!
The moral of the story here is very
simple. As the, um, heavier person who
would have to jump in the water while
Ruth bailed, we’ve decided (no,
belay
that,
I’ve decided!) that we’re
definitely going to proceed to pour our
collar of foam under the gunwales of
the Stessl, very bloody quickly!
The AIR-O-FLOAT
Stabilizers
There is a
simple, essential genius to
these things. They are so
simple to use that A-O-F’s
Doug & Judy Hemingway are
destined to make their fortune
out of this product.
It consists of an aluminium
bolt rope track (see pic) set at
a predetermined length about
200 mm apart on both sides of
the boat. The top and bottom
tracks can be fitted by nuts
and bolts, rivets, Sikaflex –
whatever you wish. Ours are a
mixture of Sikaflex and
stainless steel bolts and nyloc
nuts.
To install or mount the
stabilisers, one merely slides
the “Dee” shaped inflatable
sections along the bolt rope
tracks. This takes about 60
seconds on your own, but if
you’ve got an offsider who
can help feed the bolt rope
into the tracks whilst you pull
the ‘sausage’ along the
tracks, then the time is
reduced to about 30 seconds a side.
Pumping up each side takes about 60
seconds a side, and the inherent
friction of the hyperlon tubes holds
them in place. There is nothing to tieoff,
lock down or fix. One merely
slides the tubes into place, pump them
up – and go boating.
To take the Air-O-Float Stabilizers
off each side takes all of 10 seconds –
it is almost instantaneous. Undo the air
valve, the air rushes out, and the Air-
Fisherman
& Boatowner
17
HOW MUCH DO THEY COST ?
Air-O-Float Stabilizers:
Length Weight Rec.Retail
6’ 0” 5.5 kg $435
8’0” 7.5 kg $473
10’0” 9.5 kg $509
*Note - The Stabilsers are available to special
order in virtually any length or colour.
The standard colour for the Stabilizers is (this) blue. They are
available in this colour ex stock; one offs take extra time.
Copyright SEA Media Pty Ltd (F&B#62 - 2/2001) from www.seamedia.com.au
What could go wrong.......................
I have been on a boat with the air sponsons attached to the boat and although I could see some advantages there was some disadvantages as well
At the dock the boat was very unstable to get in and out of as you were 30cm further out from the dock and could only step on edge and kept wanting to step on the sponson. Maybe they were mounted too high but they need a fair bit of angle and weight on them before they take any weight. The ones I saw didn't seem real heavy duty material or the way they wee fastened.
The can deflate and puncture.
I'll go back to the start and basically say if your boat wasn't designed to go offshore and you are taking it there then you have an issue to start with.
What is the point of a hull that if flipped is quite high out of the water and quite instable as I would rather something sort of 50% in and 50% out for stability to hang on to as I know it wouldbe unlikely to flip back over on me. It is not like you can flip it back over and you are in a survival mode if it happens.
I would think solid foam configured like the tenders buffers that support yacht / sailing clubs and sail training organisations doesn'tsick out as far and is well scured solid foam covered in a very durable UV proof nylon type webbing It at least won't deflate and if properly designed will offer some support if swamped earlier than the air ones. Foam under the gunnels is good and in voids but only the propper stuff.
Anyone goat access to the ones the "overwater " helicopters have attached to their skids. Best of both worlds ( might be a spare set from that seaworld carpark crash) - compact and yet can inflate if needed??? $$$ might be an issue
I notice a couple of commercial boats in teh UK have them mounted on the roof of the cabin to give them self righting force in case of a capsize and a few center consoles are storing jackets and life box ring on cabin top for a similar reasin ( and teh fact they have no storage)
The simpleset way to visualise flotation is the 1 litre per 1Kg.
Because that is how much water you need to displace that much water.
so
10cm cube = 1L
1cm x 10cm x 100cm = litre
or more practically
5cm x 30cm x 100cm = 15L - 15Kg.....now that is a seat cussion. if you make up your seat cussion using suitable flotation foam... ther are two of those in an average tinny. Be more cumfy do the 10cm luxury cussion and you almost have a standard person floated between 2 cussions......remember the standard only thinks you weigh 75Kg. well may be you skinny girlfriend then.
......
.
All right then... two luxury cussions will float the girl off the boating add... the skinny one
If u take up with a tape and a calculator and a gredy eye for flotation you can find quite a but of extra floatation places......notice also that the current and later boats have wider and deeper seat thwarts..
A small ppp piece here and a small ppp piece there.
poking a few extra bits here and there in the savage, I added an extra 120Kg odd of floatation....add that to the existing...and there is still up under the bow yet to be filled.
cheers
Its the details, those little details, that make the difference.
my 16ft boat has 1515 litres of reserve bouyancy (9.5 44gallon drums)and no foam
good luck rando ......shoulda bought a stabi m8...lololololololololololol..pmsl
Clarks Rubber sell closed cell foam in sheets, 2x1.2 from memory, available in a couple of different thicknesses. This is the best floatation as it is oil and petrol resistane, doesn't absorb water and off course floats. The other thing that you can use and it can be free is old 5 litre oil bottles. Seal these and put them under the floor.
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