Day 222

After a comedy of hit and miss with the weather, the foaming guy, and us for a whole month, we decided to do the foam insulation job ourselves, or we'd be waiting until spring. We ordered the cans ( above ) to the tune of almost $2000.
The amount of foam we need is based on specifications of yield per set of tanks, and the area and thickness we require in the forward half of the boat. Usually specs are a little on the optimistic side for most things in cans or tanks, so we allowed a couple of extra feet ³ just to be sure. The tank temperature is to be at least 75º F so we left them in front of a heater all night, then when it came time to foam wrapped them in sleeping bags inside the boat. The instructions said to read the temperature indicator on the tank, but we couldn't find anything but paint on the side so something was mixed up there. We had to best guess.

The spraying went fairly well, but took some getting used to the speed it was coming out and how much to apply in one area befor moving on. We almost did the whole boat from the first two tanks less under the decks and one ceiling. The second set of tanks didn't have anywhere near the yield that the first two did. They had been sitting inside but maybe they hadn't reached 75º because they were on the outer edge of the heaters panning arc? We're not sure why. The temperature outside was only about 5ºC but it the inside of the boat had been heated to an uncomfortable temp. with all our gear on. The foam when being applied also creates heat so it was a real pressure cooker after the first set.

I was fairly happy once we were done, but Gena was kind of annoyed that we were unable to spray under the T's coming off of the frames. We tryed to get it under them but it would pile up on the hull and close off the entrance very quickly. This foam is very different than the kind that comes in the little cans. This stuff is set up in 30 seconds, hard in 60 seconds.
		After we were looked around a bit, we noticed that the thickness wasn't even close to the 2" we had calculated anywhere. We will have to get more and layer it on. Also, all the frames will need to be filled with the small can style of foam. I'm still very happy that we can now do the interior of the whole front half of the boat over winter! YAY!!!