Restoration of hurricane damaged '99 26x

[SlowSL]

I was planning to replace my bow pulpit on my '01 26x, I didn't realize there was so much foam underneath the pulpit mounting area, looks like I'll have to rethink my approach. For not having done this before it looks great.

Karl

I accessed all the nuts for the pulpit by removing the foam blocks through the inspection hatch fairly easily then put the blocks back in.

DownSouth

Unfortunately mine didn't have an inspection hatch (1999), and the foam was one solid piece, so I kind of had to hack the foam out. Cutting access holes from the anchor locker put me within a few inches of the rear mounting feet, it was easy enough.

[DownSouth]

Ah that explains it! Must have been fun....

Mine was loose foam behind plexiglass panel, just a game of Tetris to get it all back in.....

DownSouth

[OverEasy]

Wonder if there is a correlation between various years of manufacture and the flotation foam geometry….

We have a 2001 Mac26X.
It has the Tetris game approach to its foam geometry fitting throughout our boat from the fwd areas above and below the V-Berth to the interspace between the cockpit benches/floor and aft berth ceiling as well as the interspace of the stern corners.

We’ve sort of found this Tetris approach beneficial when working and routing things as it generally allows us to gain access within these regions which would have been all but impossible if it had been solid foam filled cavities.
Early on I was about to consider getting rid of all the loose bits and going back with two part expanding marine grade flotation foam to maximize the emergency float ability of Over Easy… right up until the genius of what Rodger MacGregor had deliberately done!
He understood that there would be times that there would be a need to access these cavities and had the foresight to make/keep them accessible yet still meet his obligation to make sure that the boats could and would float.

A nice and creatively sneaky way to get things done.

Best Regards
Over Easy