Shake down cruise. Hold on!

[FishStretcher]

Wet foam can be heavy, but at something like 8 lb per gallon, hiding 60 gallons of water to make 500 lb in the stringers if they already have foam in them might be a bit of a magic trick?

But wet plywood core in a deck might be 150ish lb more than a dry balsa core in a potter hull. That's guessing at 3 cubic feet of core in the deck. One at 64 lb per cubic foot, the other at 10.

[linesider36]

Fish, I'm pretty sure thats part of the problem. The decks are solid but the hatch over the gas tank is freakin heavy. Thats about 2.5'x5' and probably goes about 80-100 lbs. I'm off will keep you posted.

[uncleboo]

I did a little experiment when I put a 6" inspection plate over my fuel pick up line. The 6" round piece I cut out weighed 16 oz. when wet. let it dry for 2 months and re-weighed it to find it had lost 9 oz. of weight. Since the deck is wet and the transom is wet, I loosely calculated that I have approximately 180 to 190 lbs. of water weight in my 18. Unfortunately, I think the port stringer box has some water in it. I have about a 5 degree list to port sitting still and have balanced all the weight in it. ( Or it may be one of those pesky hog weights in there to offset the original battery placement!)

[jorgeinmiami]

I have a 77 MA and I pulled the gas hatch and it has to be at least 150 lbs took out the old water soaked wood and recorded with nidacore. ...now it weight is maybe 20-25 lbs. I also did the deck and I can imagine what kind of weight I took off

[linesider36]

I totally believe it! Flyingfrizzle thought that the stringers were holding water and they might but the boat sits level in the water at the dock, could they both be holding the same amount? I guess maybe. I'll take the hatch out of the boat and see how she rides. If all the decks are that heavy then I have a winter project.