I’m waiting for the local stores to get the pool noodles in. It is a seasonal item. I have a pakayak and want to improve the fit. The boat is too wide for good boat to body contact. I need outfitting that I can take out easily (the boat can be broken down in pieces and the pieces fit inside each other and into a giant suitcase). I’m thinking pool noodles duct taped together are part of the solution. Less worried about flotation- boat has two sealed hatches. I’ve already flooded out one section (I put the boat together and left it partially unlatched) and didn’t notice until one of my paddling partners told me the stern was sinking. One advantage of having a sectional boat is that each section is designed to be water tight (provided you do all the latches).
Might be easier to create padding by cutting up a flat wally world exercise mat or sleeping pad than by cutting up cylindrical noodles.
I’ve rethought the whole process. Since the boat will be overnighting for a week I’m messing with strategically placing a dry box behind the seat and then a sleeping bag to push me a bit forward and wedge me in a bit. Let you know how it goes.
I’m surprised it hasn’t yet been mentioned but the old school ww canoe paddlers used to use tire innertubes of somewhat appropriate sizes for bow/stern (trailer tire tubes) or center float bags (small tractor). Of course most tires are now tubeless but I think someplace that deals in farm equipment would likely still stock them. You’d have to come up with a decent method of securing them so they stay in the boat below the gunnels, but that’s the case with any flotation system.
Large blocks of Styrofoam epoxied together and carved to the inner profile of the hull would be another option.
My first kayak was an innertube. Ah the good old days.
Car, truck or tractor tubes are fine. They are odd shapes to fit to a canoe or kayak though and need to be pinched down likely to wedge them in where they need to go. I thought about them for a while before I thought of the peanut yoga balls. The balls are about the same material as a tube as far as weight and thickness and toughness. We have a couple round ones we roll our backs on and have had the one for at least ten years and never needed to add air. So they seal good.
Lately I have been thinking of inner tubes again and wondering if I cut one and sealed the cut ends how it would work as a side air bag in a canoe. Maybe a motorcycle tube. Haven’t tried it but was an idea I have been kicking around.
The round yoga ball when I stuck it under the deck of the kayak and then filled it molded itself pretty good to the shape of the opening. I think if I could sew a wedge shaped bag that was like the shape of the canoe it would do the same with a peanut yoga ball. The cylinder shape was a fair fill of the area though and the spaces it leaves I have gear I can get in them.
Also - I just remembered - in the Christopher Cunningham book Building the Greenland Kayak there’s a part of chap. 14 that gives instructions for making flotation bags using a heat seal-able nylon fabric and the source for that material is given in an appendix. I’ve not tried this myself but once you learn to use the stuff it would allow you to get that nice professional looking custom fit. I don’t know if it would be as sturdy as your yoga balls or inner tubes, but if you can make it, you could presumably patch it. I’d think you could probably get a copy of the book from the library (perhaps by request) and photocopy the appropriate parts. Just a thought that could hopefully prove helpful…
You might be able to modify this inexpensive method to do what you want.
The more floatation you have in the cockpit the better – especially when doing self-rescues.