Pontoon Ideas!

1. Changing the shape of the pontoon so that it is thinner and will not be able to fill up with water. For instance, making a flatter and thinner pontoon that resembles more of a sheet than a pod (like the current pontoons) would avoid the problem of them filling up with water. However, with this design its important to keep in mind that we have try to keep the design as aerodynamic as possible so that it doesn't negatively affect the speed of the rowers. Because of this, at least the top of the sheet would probably have to be curved.

2.  Keeping the design of the pontoon but changing it so that it is no longer hollow. The material therefore would have to be changed and would need to be something light that would be able to stay on top of the water, such as foam. We'd have to coat it in a waterproof material and if we did end up using foam we'd have to work on its sturdiness.
Some waterproof coatings to consider:http://tkocoatings.com/tuff-kote.html

3. Keeping the shape and the hollowness of the pontoon but changing the outside material. This is the simplest idea and would basically entail coating the original pontoon with a waterproof coating such as Neverwet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZrjXSsfxMQ). However there would be many things to keep in mind if we followed through with this such as water pressure on the coating and if/how the coating affects the speed of the rowers.