Rachel .... what a great idea!!! The pool noodles and tubing sounds terrific. I am going to rig it up for my strip built canoe as well. I often let kids use it..... and extra flotation on the gunnels would really help. Thanks!
H. Dale and Gloria L. Lilly
San Carlos Community Church
>From: Rachel
>Reply-To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats
>To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats
>Subject: Re: M_Boats: floatation ring
>Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 08:12:10 -0800
>
>Hi,
>
>I checked into this for my 7' Fatty Knees dinghy also. IIRC, the
>first place I checked (Add-a-Bouy?) didn't make them anymore or was
>out of business. Then I got a link for another place, that I can't
>remember, but that had a name that had something to do with
>"doggie." I let that go because it was going to be prohibitively
>expensive ($400? $700? it was so expensive I immediately put it
>out of mind).
>
>I also considered the fender idea that Howard describes, but I don't
>have that many small fenders, so it had the disadvantage of being a
>bit on the pricey side - unless you already have all the fenders and
>need a place to store them ;-) They're also slightly heavy. That
>idea still lurks as an option though.
>
>The idea I'm working on now (still in progress) involves two large
>"pool noodles" -- the brightly-colored foam tubes kids play with.
>This spring Wal-Mart had some extra-fat ones for $5 apiece. I
>bought a couple and immediately rigged them up temporarily, just to
>try them out, one just under each gunwale the length of the boat.
>They're hollow, so you can run ropes through the middle.
>
>The added flotation was amazing. As in, you could just about stand
>on the gunwales without tipping the dinghy or filling it with water.
>
>The next thing I did was buy a couple of feet of clear hose and cut
>it into ~6" lengths, which I jam fit into all the ends, to reinforce
>them. At this point you could use them as is, with perhaps one
>strap-eye mounted below the middle section, to keep them from riding
>up. I haven't gotten this far yet. Since I have some
>Sunbrella-type scraps, I'm considering sewing some sleeves for them
>which would incorporate a couple of tie down points. We'll see.
>This project is going hand-in-hand with the one where I'm just
>adding a smaller gunwale pad for everyday use. I envision the
>noodles for snorkeling and/or heavy loads in rough weather.
>
>Were you thinking of this for your M-15 or for a dinghy?
>
>FWIW --- Rachel
>Former owner, M-17 #334
>Former owner, M-15 #517
>Currently cruising on Westsail 32 #412
>
>On Thursday, November 6, 2003, at 03:32 AM, Howard Audsley wrote:
>
>>The "poor mans" version of this is to make your own out of a set of
>>those
>>hollow center boat bumpers. Pick the size you want. Just string
>>them
>>together like popcorn at Christmas. You can use eye bolts along the
>>gunnels
>>to hold them up. They float and act as bumpers to hold the hard
>>dingy off
>>the mothership.
>
>
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