Thread: bouyancy problems

Wow, way too go Catfan I bow to the Man That was really good

yes jimmy i did make the pontoons for it. filled them w/foam to stiffen them. catfan i did the bouyancy calculations. there's roughly 36 cu ft with toons and added foam, 2160lbs total carrying capcity. my problem came from not knowing the weight of the lumber. in my ignorance i convinced myself that a ton of carrying capacity would be way more than i would need. or, as you pointed out, 1080lbs at 1/2 capcaity. i filled the toons w/foam because i wasn't certain that a) the toons were strong enough; and b) that there wouldn't be pinhole leaks in the glass.
after sleeping on it i think i'm going to remove the front center transducer nose cone and move the rear flotation block up to the front 8' to see if that helps at all. as it turns out, the front of the toons have little to no carrying capacity. murphy's law is alive and well.

vol, the batteries are in the back of the boat. i have 6ga tinned wire running to a perko swich in the front from both sets of batteries. its been suggested that i remove 2 of the batteries. probably a good idea, but i'm somewhat paranoid about running out of juice. (again)

Originally Posted by dwaw

after sleeping on it i think i'm going to remove the front center transducer nose cone and move the rear flotation block up to the front 8' to see if that helps at all. as it turns out, the front of the toons have little to no carrying capacity. murphy's law is alive and well.

Moving foam forward will lower the front of the boat. It's just dead weight (albeit not much) unless it is in a spot that is otherwise filled with water. You want your foam evenly distributed so the boat floats reasonably level if you take water.

What about adding a third pontoon? Tri-toons are commercially made, and it would give you roughly 50% more capacity than you have now.