[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by mentalfloss

I'm back! Got a great deal on a 4stroke Suzuki 150. Went to mount it and crushed the transom. Had the transom replaced and now have the motor mounted. Dropped it in the drink yesterday to see how it floats and the worries about her having too much "junk in her trunk" shows (but not too bad). I am thinking about moving batteries and gas tank foward, under the casting deck up front. Any opinions about this? Please. My only thought is that they will be more apt to getting bounced around. Another option is to move the console and tower foward.
On the bright side, she looks like she will flat out haul a**!

Mentalfloss, with all due respect, you (and anyone else running a similar motor, or even a V-6 E-Tec or Optimax on a 20 sf or Seafari) should seriously consider adding a raised splashwell. The one in picture below in Kevin's 78 20sf would be a MAJOR safety improvement! This is the OEM raised splashwell option that Potter came out with in the late 70’s. Suggest you send a PM to Pianewman (Ed Newman) who is looking at having Don Herman build a batch of them. Check out this thread (http://www.classicseacraft.com/commu...ad.php?t=23137) that Ed started for more pictures. The more guys that sign up, the cheaper they’ll be!

Regarding the safety issue of low transoms and splashwells, anyone that hasn’t seen it should checkout this thread (http://www.classicseacraft.com/commu...ad.php?t=23037) about Mitchman’s 20 sf that went down suddenly off Martha’s Vineyard a couple of months ago! Mitch’s boat had enough water in the bilge that the stern went under when he opened the throttle, so I don’t know if this raised splashwell would have saved his boat, but I can’t help but wonder if it would have kept lots of water out of the boat long enough for it to accelerate away from the stern wave and maybe have bought him some time to start pumping the bilge with a manual pump!

When Carl Moesly designed the 19/20’ hulls in the mid 60’s, the biggest outboards were less than 300 lbs and the boats were easily self bailing with those motors. I believe he actually designed them for the I-6 Merc, which was very light (weighing something like 260 lbs?!) The much heavier V-6 motors came out in the late 70’s, and Potter raised the decks and came out with this raised splashwell accessory about the same time. He deserves credit for evidently recognizing the potential problems with the heavier motors! However I believe those early V-6’s were still under 400 lbs, and folks are now installing motors weighing 450-500 lbs, so the self-bailing issue is changing to one of self-sinking! Notice that all the 18's, 20 MA's, and O/B 23's which Potter designed in the 70's also have a full height splashwell!

BoatUS publishes a great magazine called Seaworthy (http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/sinking/default.asp) that summarizes “Lessons Learned” from reviewing claims from their insurance division. (This is wisdom, as defined by Fr. Frank . . . learning from other peoples mistakes!) The July 2006 issue contains a 3 page article on why outboard boats sink. Of all the boats that sank underway, MORE (32%) sank due to WATER OVER THE GUNNELS/TRANSOM than any other single cause! In one case, a 25’ boat sank off Fisher’s Island, Ny. "because 3 big guys went aft to fiddle with a stalled engine and the boat’s already-low transom was shoved down even further. A wave broke into the cockpit. In the span of only a few seconds, two more waves came aboard and the boat began sliding underwater.” The article said it sank so fast that they barely had time to grab life jackets, and this is a LOT BIGGER boat than the 20 I'm talking about! If you click on the “Taking water over the gunnels/transom” heading in the article in the link above it brings up the following 5 paragraph summary:

“The single most critical reason boats are flooded on open water has to do with transom height. Thirteen of 15 boats in the sample group that were swamped were outboard powered, with engine cut-outs that were often only inches above the waves. (Of the two remaining boats, one was an inboard with very low freeboard that took a wave over the bow and the other was a sailboat that was knocked down and sank when water entered an unsecured cockpit hatch.)

Motor wells are supposed to be the second line of defense when a wave comes over an outboard's transom but, in some cases, the well is TOO LOW, TOO SHALLOW, and/or not sealed adequately to the cockpit. Scuppers in the motor well and cockpit may also be slow to drain, especially if they're clogged. And whenever water lingers in the well or cockpit, the chances of another wave coming aboard increases. So too is the risk of being swamped.

Aside from transom height, the other contributing factor when a boat is swamped is typically weight distribution-- too many people at the stern together with scuba tanks, large coolers, BAIT WELLS, etc. that reduces buoyancy aft. In most cases, the boats were stopped or idling. The one exception was a boat that broached while entering a breaking inlet.

It should be noted that boats under 20' are required to have level flotation, so many of the boats in the study remained awash, although several were rolled over by the waves or by passengers rushing to one side of the boat.

PREVENTION: Especially on outboards with low cut outs, be conscious of weight distribution. Avoid storing scuba tanks, heavy coolers, etc. near the transom At slow speeds, keep the boat moving toward the waves. Don't anchor from the stern.”

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I thought that it was warranted, given Mitchman’s recent close call and the disturbing trend of folks installing motors much heavier than these boats were originally designed for! If we’re going to violate the original design parameters for the boat, it seems to me that we should at least compensate by raising the splashwell height to keep big waves out of the boat when the overweight motor tries to sink it! Denny