Floatation in Boats

[Captain]

Okay I have a Stessco Squire 3.75 with full decks, at the front of both the decks (if you are standing in the middle) are sections of floatation. Now being a fairly small boat room is short. These sections would be ideal for storage i.e batteries and maybe a live well.

Should I remove the floation and put this space to use or is this there by law, now I live in QLD.

Or is a 3.75 boat too small for a built in live well

Any ideas would be great.

Cheers
Captain

P.S I know floatation was touched on in a previous thread but I wanted more info.

Hi Captain, I live in QLD also, there are no rules that I know of that would stop you from making the sort of changes you want to do.

Cheers Samurai

[Stevo]

Hi Captain.

I have the exact same boat as you, i have fitted a livewell in the rear thwart with no problems, i didnt touch the front one though.
I made a platform infront of the front thwart to fit the battery.
With batteries, fuel tanks and all the gear we put in them these days i doubt the floatation in these boats would do anything. If it was a bare hull then maybe yes it would work.

I dont know of any laws stopping you from cutting it out. Insurance would be a different story i think.


The livewell

Stevo

[Stevo]

3.75 Stessco Squire. Look familiar:confused: :D

Stevo

[Captain]

Cheers guys. Steve that looks like the same hull but mine has rails and the layout is a little different. I'm guessing the floatation is the same so I'll look into it.
I'd need to change the decking do I need to use marine ply if I am going to carpet it or would normal exterior ply do the Job?

Cheers
Captain

P.S Nice live well Steve did you do that your self and get someone to put it in?

[Stevo]

Did it myself mate.

If you use standard ply it needs to be sealed with something. I used form ply which is waterproof on both sides, after you cut it all out, seal the edges.

Stevo

[Captain]

Nice.

Cheers
Captain

[Bear]

guys,
marine or normal ply, I'd still seal it just to be sure. Better to be safe than sorry.

[Captain]

Cheers Bear.

You get home alright?

I'm going out to chase big bass this weekend hopefully I can find a few more.

Cheers
Captain

[jimi]

Guys, I was reading something interesting on the web about some new national standards that are coming into place in 2005. Basically all new boats will need to have information about carrying capacity, max horsepower etc printed on them (most already do), but also will be required to have a minimum level of floatation fitted to the boat.

I'm not sure how that affects after sale modifications, but may put limits on the work that dealers can do to new boats if the work involved removing floatation to fit livewells etc. It only effects new boats.

There is some more info here: http://www.wa.alp.org.au/media/0803/20000570.html

and here http://www.fishvictoria.com/pnews/govt/030710boating.php

Also, I noticed on the quintrex site under the Quintrex in 2004->new for 2004 menu option that they are already planning to install extra floatation in the floor and sides of their boats for next years models.

Cheers
James.

[Captain]

Cheers Rod good point, the boat show is comming to Brisbane in a week, so I might ask around a few of the stall holders there and see if I can get a consensus on the matter.

Keep the idea's coming though the more info I get on this the better.

Cheers
Captain