cutting out flotation

Wanted to cut out some areas where some floations is to put storage.I was warned not to do it unless I want to sink my boat in the event of taking on water.Guess replacing it with foam on floor would be ok?

My opinion only, but one can certainly 'over think' it. Meaning if I pulled out 1 cubic-foot to put in a tackle storage ... I wouldn't think twice about it. But yes, if pulling out a TON of flotation foam, one should replace it.

Replacing it under the floor will be fine. Some folks are a little too flotation foam crazy; removing any is sacrilege to them. My advice: just don't sink the boat. LOL.

Mine has none and probably never will.

1244 Atchafalaya Outdoor Designs W/ 12hp Copperhead

You may only need it once, or maybe never...but it might save your life. Replace it somewhere.

As Dale H said, one cubic foot probably isn't going to kill you, but all of the foam under your seats being removed..... is not a good thing.

You will only know when you sink the boat.

richg99

p.s. One time, I foolishly moored my boat, floating, partially under the roof of my buddy's boat lift. Texas torrential rains came that night, and tons of water spilled off of the roof, and into my 20 ft. Gulf Coast. The bilge pump gave out sometime during the night, and my boat was gunnel to gunnel filled with water.

I had to step onto the boat to get a jumper onto the bilge pump. I don't which ..."last cubic foot of flotation"...kept her from sinking at the dock...but I was glad I had every last inch of foam that day.

Tying down the gas tank with a bungie cord would get you a few more pounds of flotation too. Might not be a bad idea anyway.

I have cut a few seats open to add storage and every one of them was only partially full of foam. I removed what I needed to add my storage box and replaced more than I removed with low expansion closed cell spray in foam so as not to soak water. On a side note most of them had open cell foam with water in it from the factory. The last one I cut only had sheets of foam cut to fit stacked in the seats and I had plenty of room to add four times what I took out, go figure. Open cell foam holds water like a sponge. I cut the floor out of a deck boat and shoveled foam for two hours. Each shovel weighed five or more pounds, wonder how much weight that added to the boat. No wonder it did not want to plane off. That boat manufacture should have a #13 boot right in the keester.

Yeah, I had a 20-year-old Lowe. When I removed the deck, the water-laden foam weighed a ton.

richg99

Took out all of mine possible. If my boat sinks I know how to swim and always have a life jacket. Although, I removed my foam due to water logging. Boat must be 30 lbs. lighter now.