76' 26 foot Reinell needing resto work

[tallguy64]

Hey all, picked up a 26' rienell the original plan was to spruce up the inside, but as we were pulling the furniture to paint and replace wall coverings i noticed that there were a couple spot in the floor that were soft, after some drilling and what not the rear section of the cabin needs replaced, got the flooring ripped out and the stringers ripped out. As i was doing all of that i was pulling out the foam that was water logged. So what i am trying to figure is what is the purpouse of the foam. I can't see that amount of foam helping this beast float if it were to sink. Also ran across a tread stating that boats over 20' are not required to have foam, from what i could find on uscg i beleive that is true. So is the foam sturctural, sound deadening, flotation, or all of the above.

Long story short the area in which this is was completely inclosed and i want to install some small hatches to access this are so i can ensure that i dont have water sitting in there and causeing rott in the future after i get it all repaired and foam would get in the way of this, would it be possilbe to leave the foam out?

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 76' 26 foot Reinell needing resto work

By 1976, I think, the USCG regs were in place, so yeah Reinell probably could have skipped the flotation foam, but didn't. There's probably at least 1 specific reason, maybe several of the 1's you mentioned.

Gutting a 26ft'r & rehab-ing it, sounds like a lot of time, effort, more then a small pile of cash, to skip even $1000 in flotation foam, for any reason, but chief among them would be keeping it afloat. Your boat's got more buoyancy then you'd think, and the foam doesn't have to do the whole job alone: trapped air, and natural buoyancy of some of the boat's construction materials, help greatly.

But even newer boats succumb:
Thanking God for a Coleman Cooler

EDIT: Seems that story has gotten too much traffic, so it no longer connects directly to the article. Google:
MULL's BLOG: Stupid, Adrift and Thanking God for a Coleman Cooler

Seasoned boaters, quickly caught off-guard, fortunately everyone was eventually safely recovered.

And this was posted recently here:

It was rehab'd by someone here on iboats & foam filled. Kept the motor mostly above water & allowed boat to be recovered. Seems there are quite a few fines involved when you partially or fully submerge your boat (fuel & motor probably more accurately) in most US waters.

Welcome to the iboats dry dock

Boat & rehab safely

 

[tallguy64]

Re: 76' 26 foot Reinell needing resto work

I see where you are coming from every little bit helps. So with my origianl problem with the area that was contamitaned with water i was wanting to make the area accessable and alow the water to move free such that i could keep the hold aired out and dry. Would there be any ideas that would be worth looking at to acomplish this?

Thanks!

 

[tallguy64]

Re: 76' 26 foot Reinell needing resto work

sorry tired to edit my pervious post but it wouldnt let me.

Random idea if i attached sheets of foam to the floor and left an air gap between the foam and the hull that would alow any water to move around if it were to get in here. A little foot note, the sheets of plywood that i am putting in here will be wrapped in a layer of fiber glass and pained with marine pain on the bottom side to prevent rot in the future. Would this work? I guess my biggest consern is that the foam was never part of the sturcter of the hull? anyone firmiliar with reinell can made speak to that?

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 76' 26 foot Reinell needing resto work

Yep, thats the rub. Hard to use pour in foam & allow water to make it's way into the bilge to be pumped out the side....

Several different methods have been started, I don't know which, if any have been 'proven' to be good work arounds.

Channels formed at the stringer w/ thru holes drilled into the stringers & bulkheads to allow water passage into the bilge.

Laying relatively thin plastic into the cavity to be filled, then either temporarily installing the deck w/ plastic sheeting applied to prevent the foam from sticking, and pouring the foam as usual. Then pulling the deck & the foam 'blocks' will be removable since they were poured into plastic areas. Or pouring the foam into each plastic lined cavity & allowing each area to be carefully filled, and then trimmed flush with the top of the adjoining stringers & bulkheads. Water may pass under & around the blocks as they have skimmed over, creating a hard exterior shell on the underside.

You can do your best to limit the air voids in the foam filled cavities, and limit the ability of water to reach any of the foam filled cavities. Cover, maintain & regularly inspect the entire boat and protect it from exposure to water.

Yeah, it's a boat & you need to protect it from water :facepalm:

Do an advanced search from the resto forum homepage on pour in foam. You will get LOTS of hits. It is not as straight forward as: This is how to do it. Sorry, hope some of that ^^^ helps....

Don's helpful tips thread has some really good thread links, look for oops' hull extension thread in that list. He's got an index on pg1 that will direct you to the info you need no matter the phase of the project. Friscoboater too, he has a couple great threads w/ lots of info & a youtube channel that details resto of a fiberglass hull. Woodonglass has really good info in his signature links too:
"Fabricating Decks, Stringers, and Transoms"

 

[tallguy64]

Re: 76' 26 foot Reinell needing resto work

Thanks You have given me a couple ideas that i think i can run with, it nice to get someone else's thoughts with out getting bashed right off the bat. If i pour foam in plastic over a small matrix of pvc tube that would give me some chanels to work with. I figure there shouldnt be any water in there really to begin with but hey it is a boat and it got in there once and to be honest i have ideas how but no real proof to back it up so its a game of trying to plan for the worse case scenario. Thanks and i will check out thoose posts i have actauly started reading the oops hull extnsion and there is defienaly a lot of good info.