Rinker 272 floatation?

rsengland

I just bought a 2000 Rinker 272 Cuddy cabin.  There is no storage under the cabin cushions.  Is this space intended to provide floatation in case of a flooded boat?  Will this prevent the boat from ever sinking?  The engine is a Mercruiser 454 MAG MPI with Bravo 3 outdrive. Thanks.

Black_Diamond

Welcome to the Rinker family amd the forum here RS. Your boat is not 'unsinkable'. I'm sure some similar model owners can chime in with specifics if you have more questions.

frodo13056

Wow - I bought a 1999 272 cuddy back in 2004 and had the EXACT same question about storage under the cushions in the cabin - seemed like a ton of wasted storage space. So, I called Randy Rinker and he told me that there was nothing under the cushions and that I could cut out an opening and use that space, so I did. Originally, I was going to install hatch covers but decided to just go with plexiglass. So, out came the drill and jigsaw, drew lines and cut away. I cut out on both the port and starboard sides, lined the hull with carpet (glued in with waterproof glue), set up the plexiglass covers, hinged them and set the cushions back on top - and lined the edges of the fiberglass that I cut out with flexible edging:

http://www.westmarine.com/taco--flexible-trim--P024_724_001_008

I also installed 12v rope lighting in each compartment with a switch on a custom panel I made so that you could actually see inside them. If you didn't know better, you'd say it came from the factory that way. Unfortunately I never took any pictures of that modification but I did some other additions that made the boat a great over nighter including adding a hot water heater with a shower head (at the sink), halon fire extinguisher, added several new circuit breakers in the battery selector compartment along with rope light, rope light in the fridge,etc. We used to do quite a bit of night boating so having lights inside compartments made it much easier to find stuff :-) I also added a transom mount lower unit trailer control switch - I could easily raised the lower unit when trailering without having to climb into the boat - that was a very nice addition! This was the second boat that I added fuel flow monitoring - I used the Navman unit and it was extremely accurate - no guessing how much fuel I used, how much fuel I was using at various speeds and how much fuel remaining.

raybo3

Wow Frodo great job 

Cableguy Greg

Looks great Frodo!!!

MarkB

Frodo, are you for hire. That is smart man!