Flying boats sponsons vs. stabilizing tip floats

[Pasoleati]

Is there enough statistical data to compare the take-off/landing mishaps of flying boats with either sponsor-type stabilisation vs. stabilization with auxiliary floats? At least in small flying boats great many accidents seem to involve an auxiliary floats dipping too deep etc. resulting in a mishap.

 

[riggerrob]

On the other hand, the latest Icon small flying boat has unusually long sponsons and has demonstrated steep turns on water without wing tips digging in.
The primary reason that Icon has sponsons is to allow it fold its wings to travel to the lake on a trailer ... more like a flyable jet-ski ... for recreation. So the challenge becomes installing sufficient stabilizing floatation volume far enough outboard .. without exceeding the 8 foot width limit on trailers in most jurisdictions.

We have only seen a couple of photos of Dornier S-Rey on the water. S-Rey has smaller sponsons than Icon. One photo suggests that S-Rey lacks sufficient bow volume/excess flotation to prevent the bow from digging into larger waves. We wonder what size of waves S-Rey is rating for. Too bad S-Rey did not go into production as it looks like a fun little seaplane.

 

[OldManJoe]

Aside from stability, the sponsons would be useful as a great place to store the main landing gear.