Floatation foam

[TriBull]

Attached are a couple pics that highlight the importance of floatation foam on small tin boats! This young man floated for two days off the coast of St Augustine, Florida. Stung by jelly fish, severe sunburn and circling sharks, he survived because the boat’s flotation foam was intact and he had the presence of mind to shed the motor and all other weight from the boat after being swamped by waves. For those with old tin boats or doing restorations, make sure you keep the flotation foam top of mind…

 

[Still Afloat]

On the hand, what the heck is he doing on the ocean in an 8’ tin boat.

 

[sonny1]

25 years old and not enough sense to realize a 8ft boat may not be suited for the ocean. No the motor and everything else got tossed from the rough seas. His mommy and daddy was there after the rescue praising that their golden child survived. I think I would have been asking "What Were You Thinking"

 

[Sea Antsy]

25 years old and not enough sense to realize a 8ft boat may not be suited for the ocean. No the motor and everything else got tossed from the rough seas. His mommy and daddy was there after the rescue praising that their golden child survived. I think I would have been asking "What Were You Thinking"

"what were you thinking ?"....puleeeze... he probably FELT... and HOPED... not quite up to THINKING just yet

 

[Al U Minium]

I have experience wind and current events in a small boat once you move away from land. Sailboaters will understand because they have to pay attention to wind and current.

This guy did use his head to survive and he did very well indeed.

 

[thill]

Great reminder! Glad the kid made it. I bet he won't do THAT again.

 

[thill]

I've been thinking about this for a bit. For what it's worth, the St. Augustine area can be very deceptive. It's the only place I've EVER been where the Atlantic Ocean looked like a pond, with NO waves, beyond the ones boats made. This pic was looking back toward shore as we ran home in my jon boat.:


That day, it was rougher inside the Bay, from boats going in and out, than out in the ocean. Crazy!

Two days later, it was a different story. It was ROUGH out, no way we could go out there. But inshore, behind the sandbar, it looked like this. This is us, in the OCEAN, in my jon boat. It was like glass in there:



Our last day there, it was rougher than it looks in this pic, but do-able if you drove with care. We didn't stay out there for long:


I post this to say that people safely run around that area in Jon boats all the time.

What MAY have happened, is the kid was trying to run in before a storm, hit some big waves, and his clamp-on motor jumped off. Tide and currents sucked him out to sea, and he probably didn't have a cell phone back then.

THIS is why it's a good idea to have a wood, rubber or aluminum motor clamp block. If you have evern had a motor jump off, you will know what I'm talking about!

 

[airshot]

Great reminder! Glad the kid made it. I bet he won't do THAT again.

He got off easy and made into a hero....he might try it again !! Gotta look carefully at the generation he comes from.....

 

[TriBull]

I appreciate all the perspectives, each with their own merit! As a 65 yr old who grew up on an island on the Florida gulf coast, I have to admit that even 50+ years ago as a kid, I took the same kinds of risks, as did every kid I knew on the island and surrounding areas. That’s what kids did back then and still do today! Let’s face it, most kids living by open water only have access to small boats and they live for adventure! Always did, always will…

BUT, my point of the original post was to highlight the great importance of maintaining functional floatation foam in old and restored tin boats! It’s really an important safety feature, that now as an old man, I have the wisdom to realize…

 

[TriBull]

Btw, this incident just occurred this past week:

https://www.wafb.com/2023/08/07/res...than-day-lost-sea-small-craft/?outputType=amp

 

[Still Afloat]

I guess I learned from a few mistakes along the path of life. Hopefully, the lesson registered for the kid.

 

[Smokey101]

And I thought this this thread was about floatation foam, not asumptions on how the Guy got into this situation.

 

[bigcity]

Oh for focks sake, how many among us have survived some really dumb chit we did in our 20's?? I have a list of stuff that should have killed me!
As I read it, he was near shore, got swamped(maybe even flipped) by a wave and managed to get the boat back right side up. However all of his gear was washed away. I thought I read that he actually took the motor off to help with buoyancy.

I'm glad the young man is here to tell the tale.

 

[JL8Jeff]

I wonder how old the boat was that the foam still worked. I'm pretty confident my 22 year old boat has water logged foam that probably won't help it float. When I pull my boat out of the water at the end of the season, it drips water for at least a week or more.

 

[airshot]

I wonder how old the boat was that the foam still worked. I'm pretty confident my 22 year old boat has water logged foam that probably won't help it float. When I pull my boat out of the water at the end of the season, it drips water for at least a week or more.

Perhaps you have a lesson here...are you going to take it seriously ??

 

[LDUBS]

I wonder how old the boat was that the foam still worked. I'm pretty confident my 22 year old boat has water logged foam that probably won't help it float. When I pull my boat out of the water at the end of the season, it drips water for at least a week or more.

That would be interesting to know. Along with the configuration of the foam.

 

[LDUBS]

I guess I learned from a few mistakes along the path of life. Hopefully, the lesson registered for the kid.

I guess they exist, but I have yet to meet the perfect human being.

 

[TriBull]

This story hit home for me because I restored my boat last year and really questioned whether I should bother with the foam. Two seats had the original 50 year old foam and the third seat had no foam. Eventually I decided that at my age safety was important, so I bit the bullet and did all three seats with new foam blocks - pics attached. Looking back, I’m glad I made the effort! Btw, I bought the foam blocks off Amazon, but I’m sure there’s other options….

 

[Lost But Happy]

This story hit home for me because I restored my boat last year and really questioned whether I should bother with the foam. Two seats had the original 50 year old foam and the third seat had no foam. Eventually I decided that at my age safety was important, so I bit the bullet and did all three seats with new foam blocks - pics attached. Looking back, I’m glad I made the effort! Btw, I bought the foam blocks off Amazon, but I’m sure there’s other options….

Very nice!

I replaced my {nasty, original, mouse crap-ridden} foam a couple of weeks ago with pink board. It came out ok, but I really wish I would have known about a foam board knife. I have one now though. lol

 

[Wayne Roberts]

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