On Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:00:11 -0500, cavelamb ""cavelamb\"@ X
earthlink.net" wrote:

On 4/11/2010 10:58 AM, Karl Townsend wrote:
I've had good luck drying out wet foam cores by sealing around the
cracks and using a vacuum pump. If you try this either use some sort
of catch bottle in the vacuum line or plan on changing the pump oil
several times.

Depends on the volume you are drying but start with 24 hours of vacuum
and then check.

Cheers,

John D. Slocomb
(jdslocombatgmail)

That sounds like a good idea. just use an old refrigerator compressor for
your pump. Cheap and disposable.

Karl




All good suggestions, but none will actually work in this case.


Drying and sealing won't help if the cores have broken loose.
In that case, the inner skin is cut open - large enough to dig
out all the loose foam. Then a new foam core is inserted and
bonded in place.
Then the hole in the skin is replaced and repaired.

If the problem is extensive, free may be all it's worth.

I had thought that those boats were mainly just a big hunk of foam
carved to shape and covered with glass? If so there isn't anything to
break loose other then the fiberglass skin.

If this is how these boats were built, I've worked on similar boats
and to be honest all you can do is drill a bunch of holes and vacuum.
or drill a bunch of holes and wait for the water to run out. Whether
the foam is saturated or has separated from the skin and full of water
it doesn't make much difference if the problem has existed for any
length of time as the water is almost everywhere and about all you
can do is get as much water as possible out and seal the holes.

The guy could drill holes at say 1 ft. intervals all over the bottom
of the boat. Some will drain water and some (hopefully) won't. He may
find that the water is confined to a smallish area and then remove the
skin and probably cut out any water soaked foam and re-skin. Or he may
find water everywhere and just drain as best as he can and seal up the
holes.

Cheers,

John D. Slocomb
(jdslocombatgmail)