"Stroyer" wrote in message ...
I've got a new 15 ft Pelican Explorer that just had it's first river trip...
When it's full of water and there's no shorline, it's a real bear to get
upright and emptied. Some additional floatation would have been a BIG help.

I've been surfing the net, looking at different types of foam, extruded and
beaded polystyrene (styrofoam), polypropylene, etc., but I'm only coming
across manufacturers... Does anybody out there have any suggestions on
where to get the most effective (and cost-effective) foam? What seems to be
working the best?

Another side thought is that I'd like to keep the canoe as "clean" as I can
inside.... fill up the voids under the seats, some in the bow (although I'm
limited there by the foot room requirement), and a good sized block in the
stern. Any ideas on the best ways to shape the foam for a good fit? I'm
scheming on getting some of the styrofoam granules and making by own casts,
then "shrink-wrapping it before I place it and secure it.....

Yes, I'm a newbie, and no, I'm not an engineer... I'm a physicist.... can ya
tell?

IDEAS???

Foam floatation is an obsolete concept. Google on Voyager (or maybe
it's Voyageur), Dagger, Outfitting By Mikey, or Nantahala Outdoor
Center to find a source of inflatable floatation. Drill 1/8" holes 8"
apart just below the gunwhales to lace utility cord through, to make a
cage or web to lash in the airbags, and then tie the corner grommets
to thwarts or to little u-brackets screwed into the thwarts.

If yer squeamish about drilling holes in the hull, you can, instead,
use the u-brackets at 8" intervals on the undersides of the inwhales.

If you post this question on Paddle Prattle, the discussion board of
the Monocacy Canoe Club, at
http://www.monocacycanoe.org/mccboard/mccboard.html, Mike McCrae will
probably reply, and tell you in which back issue of Canoe & Kayak you
can find his article on anchoring strips of webbing to the inwhales.
These webbing strips, in turn, are used to anchor the floatation
lashings.

An advantage of the inflatable-floatation/U-bracket-or-webbing-anchor
approach is that it's flexible, so you can reconfigure for solo or
tandem paddling, for carrying expedition gear, etc.

--
-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty

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Richard Hopley, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net 1-301-775-0471
Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll.
rhople[at]wfubmc[dot]edu 1-336-713-5077
OK, OK; computer programming for scientific research also matters.
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