Bow Heavy Sea Craft

abl1111 · #1 12-17-2003, 09:47 PM

Glass in 150-200 lbs of lead weight in the stern. It's very small for it's weight. I have 200 lbs in (1) plastic milk carton. I bought 250 lbs of lead from a metal scrap place years ago for $75 ( to weigh the trunk of a BMW down in the snow ).

Car's gone. Now I have a life long supply of lead for sinkers for the melting pot ( make that 10 life times worth ! )

If I were in your predicament, and it bothered me, I would figure out a way to properly glass in lead. It won't rust. And if thought-out well and done properly - you could remove it any time...

lost2a6 · #2 12-18-2003, 01:13 AM

Thanks guys for all of the replies.

Madmax: That is interesting that your boat sits even more bow heavy with the bracket, Your bracket must be buent. If I was going to do this then I guess that I would need to pick a bracket that has absolutely no buency. My e-mail is lost2a6@cableone.net

abl1111:I have thought of adding weight. I tried doing this when I re did the transom. I went with less wood and more glass. I ended up using almost 15 gal. of resin. This helped some with the addition of the jack plate. It wouldn't take much weight, I can sit on the engine and the water will run out good. I weigh 170 lbs. I just hate to add weight to an already heavy ass under powered boat. In a way I hate the idea of twins because of double the maintance and the fear of burning more fuel. I get 2.3 MPG right now at 30 MPH. (4200-4300 RPM) I think what the problem is the front deck is soo heavy with it's ¾” plywood and 3/8” glass on top and bottom of the wood.
Again thanks for all of the replys, I really wanted to make sure that I didn't have water trapped some where.

PipeDreamsMarine · #3 12-18-2003, 07:59 AM

This is kind of a "redneck" fix for your problem.. but you hate when you wash the boat down and the water runs forward.. . and if you sit on the motor it runs out and your 170 pounds.... Well 170lbs is 85 quarts..I had a boat with the same problem and what I did was to fill my 96 quart bait cooler with water after I washed the boat down.. added some soap and bleach and let it sit till I use the boat again. I put a 18" piece of hose over the drain and moved the plug to the end of the hose. When I used the boat I just pulled the plug and it drained out the scupper and I had a nice clean and good smell'in cooler and a boat that sat nice..

[ December 18, 2003, 07:00 AM: Message edited by: PipeDreamsMarine ]

ScottM · #4 12-18-2003, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lost2a6:
I just hate to add weight to an already heavy ass under powered boat. In a way I hate the idea of twins because of double the maintance and the fear of burning more fuel. I get 2.3 MPG right now at 30 MPH. (4200-4300 RPM).

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">IMO your not underpowered at all. My father's Sceptre runs 30 MPH at 4500 RPM with a 225 Yam turning a 15x15 SS prop on a jack plate. Maybe you don't carry as much fuel or turn a different prop, but it sounds like you're doing well with that single 200.

lost2a6 · #5 12-18-2003, 12:55 PM

Scott, The 200 is strong for a 200. The cruise speed is being full of fuel 144 gal. The less fuel that I have causes the cruise speed and top speed to go down. She'll do 40 on GPS full of fuel. The only reason that I can come up with is the extra fuel in the stearn of the boat is creating more bow lift. I'm swinging a 17 pitch prop, at WOT trimed out just befor cavatation it's turning about 5400. The reason why I say that it is slightly underpowered is when the boat is loaded down with people fishing gear etc. I really have to lean on it to plane off, also I'm just use to a faster boat.

ScottM · #6 12-18-2003, 02:26 PM

Steve,
That's interesting that your cruise and WOT fall when you have less fuel [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] . Our boat has virtually no difference in cruise/WOT regardless of fuel load, which is the opposite of your situation. We've run the boat full with 5 people, 1/2 with 2 people, less than 1/4 with one person - all scenarios produce the same speed, give or take 1/2 MPH. Strange.

Briguy · #7 12-18-2003, 02:31 PM

Another Redneck answer. It seems all of your ideas don't really fix the problem or really diagnose what the problem is. How could the '79 boat sit stern heavy or level and the 82 boat sit bow heavy. The problem must be water somehow trapped foward to which some of you alluded too. To find out if there is, you must first borrow a stethoscope. Even a soup can may work. Put the boat on the trailer. While your buddy drives the truck with the trailer behind it slowly on deserted road or parking lot. Your job is to be in the cabin with the stethoscope listening for sloshing water sounds. When your buddy taps the breaks, you will hear water sloshing around if it's in there. How you get the water out is for you to dream up. [img]images/icons/blush.gif[/img] Fixing the problem is much better than compensating the problem.

I could have put 200 pounds of lead shot in my forward anchor locker of my cc for my stern heavy problem but instead I put on a flotation bracket.