Foam

A writer asks about filling the bow and stern air chambers with foam. The instruction manual addresses this question by saying that this is not recommended. The concern is trapping moisture in the foam and doing damage to the wood. John C. Harris from Chesapeake Light Crafts wrote in an earlier comment on this blog:

Youre not quite to that stage yet, but the only spots to obsess over epoxy coverage is on the inside of the air compartments. Moisture--and it can just be water vapor--in those compartments has an insidious way of staining wood. Passagemaker #2, which is in our showroom, has been used very hard this year and shows some small interior stains, probably because there were tiny pinholes in the epoxy coating.

CLC also sells nifty deck plates, which provide a watertight but removable entry into a sealed air chamber. They arent part of the Passagemaker kit, but I am probably going to get a couple for my boat. They would provide access to the chambers for storage of small items while sailing, and also provide a means of ventilation for a less than perfectly constructed boat that a first-timer like myself is likely to end up with. On my boat (as opposed to the take-apart version) the deck plates would be installed in the fore and aft bulkhead at the centerline of the boat.

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