Floatation

Here's a shot of the boat with the sail sitting in the lazy jacks. Floatation has been added to the boat in the hopes of making the boat recoverable should a knock down occur.



View of the interior. The blue cushions on either side of the boat are of nylon rip stop material covering 4 inch wide styrofoam. If I was crossing the ocean I'd probably provide different floatation but for a beach toy I think this is fine, relatively easy, and cheap.



Here's a closer view of the interior. Inside the cushion is a 1/2 inch strip of wood attached to the upper edge of the styrofoam. The white PVC "clamps" snap in place over the wood strip which is inside the blue cover. The clamps hold the top edge of the cushions in place snugly up against the inside of the hull. The bamboo floor holds the bottom edge of the cushions in place snugly up against the side of the hull.



Here is a closer view of the PVC clamps. I took a large diameter of PVC pipe and cut it into 1.5 inch wide circles. One can soften PVC enough to bend and shape it by putting it in boiling water. The clamps seem to be pretty sturdy. I pushed and pried a whole bunch on the cushions and could not break the clamps or cause them to work loose.




So lets test it. Here's a view of the boat floating on it's side in about 2 feet of water. The boat is floating relatively high in the water due to the cushions. No part of the boat, sail, or mast is touching the bottom. The boat, when righted from this floating high position contains some water but is manageable.

Without flotation the boat would float half in and half out of the water when on it's side. When righted from the half in and half out position the boat would contain a lot of water and be hard to manage. So I'm basically happy with the floatation for now.



Close up of the submerged cushion. The cushion's clamped edge is submerged a few inches under the water by the weight of the boat. Only the upper cushion edge with the clamps is submerged. The cushion edge near the floor is not submerged. The weight of the sail pulls press the mast downward and angles the boat so the rail is submerged.



Back home the cushions and floors are removed and everything gets to dry out. This is Florida and mold would quickly form without a dry out. Hope you enjoyed that. Till next time.