negatively buoyant

[LT206]

On the other thread Lvnspeed has a sunk boat because the plug was left out and it went to the bottom. Several have made comments that there must be some reason the boat went negatively buoyant - inadequate flotation (recall issue on that model?) and/or other ballast that caused the boat to weigh more than the floatation could support. My question is - where is it written that the boat should stay afloat in the event it gets swamped. Is that part of the NMMA regulations? Is that a correct craft guarantee? I"ve never seen that in any marketing material from CC.

I can see the benefit of the boat staying on the top of the water even with water up to the gunwales, but never assumed that it would.

[gride300]

RE: negatively buoyant

the only boats that i know that don't sink are whalers. you can cut one in half and stand in either half w/o sinking. the whole hull is full of foam. i have heard this about nautiques but havn't seen

[swooddc]

RE: negatively buoyant

I can't saw where I saw it, but I remember clearly a story I read in the late 80's about a guy that got caught in a big storm on his lake. The boat was swamped completely and this guy and his family rode out the storm sitting in his boat like a swamped canoe with water up to the gunwales. It was in some CC info, I think it was a thank you letter to CC for saving his life. It seems it was included in the new owner packet or something. That is where I got it from. hope someone can shed some light on this question. Maybe Jeff can do some digging for us.

[AirTool]

RE: negatively buoyant

Boston Whaler is the only one I remember to specfically advertise it. ...but I think McKee craft advertised it as well. They are similar in design to Whalers.

However, my dad has an 18 fish Wellcraft C/C and one time one of the self bailing deck fittings broke loose and the hose starting filling the bilge. It stabilized and we didn't notice until we tried to get on plane. If it didn't have any flotation filling the bildge, it would have sunk. I believe we could have taken water over the transom and would have equalized...not sinking us.

AirTool

[harddock]

RE: negatively buoyant

I think there was a law that all boats 20' and under had to float water level, It was like a Coast Guard standard requiring the foam. Whaler's claim to fame was that you could cut one in half and both halves would float.

[AirTool]

Re: RE: negatively buoyant

Whaler's claim to fame was that you could cut one in half and both halves would float.

That's right...cut in half.

I can also remember several occassions where small craft (mid 20's to 30 footers) capsized here on the Gulf coast. Most of the time, the crew died but the boats stayed at the surface for the CG to find.

[gride300]

RE: Re: RE: negatively buoyant

go to whaler's website and look at a pic of a little boat with someone in the aft side and someone in the fore

[DavidF]

Re: RE: negatively buoyant

I think there was a law that all boats 20' and under had to float water level, It was like a Coast Guard standard requiring the foam. Whaler's claim to fame was that you could cut one in half and both halves would float.

Yes, this is correct. So, the SN 196 certainly qualifies and must have enough built in floatation to stay bouyant. My 99 NSS does not qualify since >20'

I forget, but wasn't the boat in question a 196? If so, it should have stayed floating. Again assuming that lead ballast was not added. Water ballast would not effect the bouyancy once the level of the water on the inside of the boat reached the top of the tanks/bags.

[2gofaster]

RE: Re: RE: negatively buoyant

I knocked the transom out of my first 96 nautique years ago when I hit something under the water dead square at top speed. Don't ask. lol. broke the rudder off and opened a hole about the size of a football. Boat filled up with water to the bottom of the gunnel and we floated that way for 2 hours before another boat got there to tow us. Then we had to let the boat sit overnight like that before we could make arrangments to get it lifted by the lift rings out of the water.

[DanielC]

RE: Re: RE: negatively buoyant

There was a recall affecting Ski Nautiques around this time period, for adding additional flotation to the bow, and trunk area.

[j2nh]

If memory serves me correctly my 02 196 was recalled by the factory for inadequate flotation. There was no flotation in the bow area and possibly not enough in the rear. Not sure how many years this covered and I received it after think my second year of ownership. My 05 had sprayed in floatation in the bow area and my new 09 has blocks in the bow attached to the deck. It is very possible that if one of those boats affected by the recall had not had the additional foam installed it could go down.

With regard to batteries working under water our club has a 16 foot flat bottom with a 40 hp mercury that sits in the water all summer. The battery has been submerged more times than I can count and works just fine while submerged and afterwards. Fresh water is a very poor conductor of electricity and while this is not a good thing, they do work. Several Nautique owners have used the fact that water is a poor conductor to power led platform lights through the swim platform brackets.

[east tx skier]

Re: RE: negatively buoyant

Boston Whaler is the only one I remember to specfically advertise it. ...but I think McKee craft advertised it as well. They are similar in design to Whalers.

However, my dad has an 18 fish Wellcraft C/C and one time one of the self bailing deck fittings broke loose and the hose starting filling the bilge. It stabilized and we didn't notice until we tried to get on plane. If it didn't have any flotation filling the bildge, it would have sunk. I believe we could have taken water over the transom and would have equalized...not sinking us.

AirTool

MasterCraft advertised it back in the early 80's. I think they even had an ad where they cut the boat in half and both halves floated. I looked for it yesterday, but couldn't turn up the picture. But there's definitely one out there of an old S&S floated to the gunnels.

[LT206]

I did a little research - a boat when swamped is required to float with some portion of the craft out of the water per Code of Federal Regulations, Title 33, Chapter 1, Subchapter S - Boating Safety. I cut and pasted part of the text below. So - it is a federal LAW. In addition, I found provisions for testing each make and model to make sure it passes this test. If the boat doesn't the manufacturer is required to do a recall in which they have the option of adding flotation or changing the capacity plate. Interesting.

TITLE 33 - NAVIGATION AND NAVIGABLE WATERS

CHAPTER I - COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

SUBCHAPTER S - BOATING SAFETY

PART 183 - BOATS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT

subpart f - FLOTATION REQUIREMENTS FOR INBOARD BOATS, INBOARD/OUTDRIVE BOATS, AND AIRBOATS

183.105 - Quantity of flotation required.

(a) Each boat must have enough flotation to keep any portion of the boat above the surface of the water when the boat has been submerged in calm, fresh water for at least 18 hours and loaded with: (1) A weight that, when submerged, equals two-fifteenths of the persons capacity marked on the boat; (2) A weight that, when submerged, equals 25 percent of the dead weight; and (3) A weight in pounds that, when submerged, equals 62.4 times the volume in cubic feet of the two largest air chambers, if air chambers are used for flotation.

(b) For the purpose of this section, dead weight means the maximum weight capacity marked on the boat minus the persons capacity marked on the boat.

[RyanRobert]

I also believe it is in the Parting the Waters book...