To foam, or not to foam...

Ive been doing some searching on the site about the use of floation foam for boats and after a while I got the feeling adding this stuff might be more trouble than it's worth. This seems esp. true when the costs of some of these foam products are considered.

I read people's concerns about even how so called "closed foam" can allow significant water abosorbsion if it develops stress cracks which can commonly occur from the flexing nature of fiberglass boats. I know paints/ expoxies etc. can be used to help prevent initial water absorbtion from occuring, but in my experience, water will almost always find its way in so I really feel I need a product by nature is truly water repellent.

I have a small 1980's era 16ft fiberglass boat Im re-doing and just finished removing gobs of water logged foam (and this stuff was applied at the factory!!) from it. Needless to say, I dont want want this happening again, but at the same time I dont want my poor boat to sink if it ever became overcome with water (due to crack in hull/ capsize situation, etc.).

Can anybody provide some advice about what might be best in the end for me to do? Im sort of at a cross road at this point. Thanks.

I've done something similar with my dinghy, removed deteriorated and wet foam from the boxed-in seats.

My rebuild of these areas will just leave them void, not filled with foam. The air spaces should provide adequate flotation, and if water does intrude, it should be fairly easy to fix the problem without dismantling the seats.

So, my answer to: "to foam or not to foam," would be the latter.

jonathan