you all ever go out SOLO?

In addition to the few cubic feet of foam I have in my hull, I stuffed in all of my family's PFDs including a couple of extras and some that the kids have outgrown on my last trip. I had to remember to pull them out after to rinse and dry, though.

I brought a 28’ boat above surface with a float bag that had total volume of a couple of averagely obese Americans

That boat was basically just shy of neutral bouyancy with whatever air was trapped in the upside down hull. Just a little bit less and it would’ve been washing back and forth at the bottom under the golden gate and nobody would’ve taken the job

I was also doing calculations for floating much larger objects and was always surprised how little it takes to float something. More complicated than that but for a yak unless you’re packing cast iron frying pans and a treadle sewing machine a couple of noodles should do the trick

The multiple frying pans and treadle sewing machine came to mind re my great grandmother’s journal for a horseback excursion into the Oregon mountains in 1890s included those and a lot more

Point being it doesnt take much to get from negative to positive buoyancy with most yaks

Other factors though

For me seeing a major name brand yak do the titanic thing and point at the sky then shoot to the bottom was all the education anyone should need about overloading their yak

I brought a 28’ boat above surface with a float bag that had total volume of a couple of averagely obese Americans

That boat was basically just shy of neutral bouyancy with whatever air was trapped in the upside down hull. Just a little bit less and it would’ve been washing back and forth at the bottom under the golden gate and nobody would’ve taken the job

I was also doing calculations for floating much larger objects and was always surprised how little it takes to float something. More complicated than that but for a yak unless you’re packing cast iron frying pans and a treadle sewing machine a couple of noodles should do the trick

The multiple frying pans and treadle sewing machine came to mind re my great grandmother’s journal for a horseback excursion into the Oregon mountains in 1890s included those and a lot more

Point being it doesnt take much to get from negative to positive buoyancy with most yaks

Other factors though

For me seeing a major name brand yak do the titanic thing and point at the sky then shoot to the bottom was all the education anyone should need about overloading their yak

+1