How do you handle ballasting changes?

[micheck]

As you do significant ballasting changes - additional water/fuel tanks - more batteries - anchor rode storage changes - cabinetry

How do you calculate the effect and compensate?

Charles

[glassdad]

How big a boat are you talking about? My Catalina 30 has a very slight list to starboard when the water tank on that side is full. On the other hand, I weigh more than the water and I sit where ever I am comfortable. It is not a big deal in an 11,000 pound boat.

[Yorksailor]

My boat is 60,000lbs and has a list, generator, A/C, wife's shoes etc are all on the port side. Maybe I should move the shoes to starboard!

Phil

[Silvio]

Originally Posted by Yorksailor

My boat is 60,000lbs and has a list, generator, A/C, wife's shoes etc are all on the port side. Maybe I should move the shoes to starboard!

Phil

Don't touch her shoes...
21 years of married bliss and I attribute it largely to my not messing with any closet or staorage space in our homes, definitely never move her shoes or hand bags.

[DwayneSpeer]

You should only worry about changes if it indeed changes the way your boat sets in the water. It would take a pretty small boat to have significant changes. However one of my friends put several 80 pound bags of sand in the bow of his boat because he was worried that the stern sat too low and he may take on a boarding sea. I told him to take them out since it's a bad idea but he is new and a worrier.

[RhythmDoctor]

My model of boat is known to be stern heavy. To correct it I have 300 lb. of pea pebbles under the V-berth in the bow.

Do not underestimate how important this can be. It can have a large impact on weather helm because it affects your mast rake. On my boat it was critical to fix the problem because the bow hatch leaks if the boat does not rest on her lines. The gutters around the hatch are designed to slope very slightly forward so rainwater drains into and through the anchor locker. If the bow is even an inch higher than the stern, the water will drain the wrong way, fill the gutter, and eventually leak into the cabin no matter how tightly you seal it.

Other boats are different, and larger boats are harder to adjust, but on small boats a little bit of ballast can have a lot of influence.

[tmelhiser]

Originally Posted by Yorksailor

Maybe I should move the shoes to starboard!
Phil

Phil,

I've had to deal with this before! The only answer I actually found that worked long term was pull into port, jettison the A/C (while that's done have a new shoe wrack built starboard (who needs that extra head any way)), by the time the wife get's back, fill the new and old shoe wrack equally with her new shoes. Equilibrium, problem solved.

As far as a real answer, consider this a bump. I have the same question.

-t