Newbie ? about water ballast

[soling42]

We had some friends who used to frequent this board and took their 260 around the great loop. When they made it down this way I made it a point to anchor up with them for a couple nights. When I initially pulled aside and tied up I was amazed at how much lower their boat was sitting than mine. At least 4"! With all the gear on board for such a trip I know that if the vent were opened that it'd gush like a geyser.

Yes you can top off the tank and i do when I have a good sized crew onboard but be cautious or you'll get an eye full

 

[VT Fitz]

Topping off ballast tank

... So, here's something for somebody to try. Fill your tank with your normal load on board, then go sailing. Then go back and put a heavy load on the boat, top of the tank, then remove the extra weight. Go sailing and see if there's a difference in the way the boat handles. Guess you could see if the boat sets lower in the water. I don't know if you can load the boat so much as to force the air vent lower than the waterline...that would be bad...very bad....

Here's another, easier way to top off the tank without loading/unloading all the gear. Simply open the vent & fill it from the top with a hose from the dock!

I'd be interested in knowing if there is any appreciable improvement in sailing performance with more water ballast. Candidly, I'm guessing there wouldn't be a noticeable difference.

 

[soling42]

My boat is a race horse with the extra 20lbs of ballast...NOT. A tank thats a few gallons shy vs 20 is what we're talking about. A tweak here or there is because I'm still struggling with the idea of top speed being a whopping 6.5kts. I'm a nut.

Actually for stability I'd do better moving gear to windward and aft if I'm on an extended tack in a breeze(or completely overboard). The 260 is a little less sensitive to weight distribution than the 240/23.5 but really it only allows me to drag more unneeded stuff along like my 100lb roll up dinghy which I rarely use(among 500lbs of other junk that keeps the wife happy). If we're out for a week or more I'll sometimes move it back to the cockpit and tie it to the windward rail when I'm in need of rail meat and kelli won't move. Of course diplomacy with the admiral is critical.

I guess my point is to throw everything overboard and get the air out of the tank for warp 9.......that's 6.5kts-vs-6kts

Crankin' out the speed in my floating RV/race horse. Mike

 

[fokker416]

We had an interesting thing happen to us yesterday. Generally, it's the admiral's job to fill the ballast while I'm loading gear. We will close up the ballast when all are aboard and we're casting off, that way everything that can weight down the boat will be on board so the ballast will fill all it can. We were motoring out and the boat seemed a little "bobbly". I went below to get something and I popped open the ballast and it began to fill more, enough that I could feel air moving and hear water rushing. I sat down there with it until it stopped. I noticed that the bolt actually raised back into the closed position because I pushed the bolt down and it filled again/more. Once I did this the boat was noticeably more stable. Apparently, it's possible for the bottom valve to raise and seat itself enough to at least slow the fill rate down so much that one will not feel air coming out the vent (if not shut the opening completely).

Building on that, I have a question. How much can the position of cargo and crew effect how the ballast will fill? We are still novice sailors and we day sail on a lake so the light amount of gear/provisions we pack are stored either on or below the cockpit area (all aft of the ballast valves). I moved to the middle of the boat and we were moving, I presume both would change the position of the boat in the water. Can this matter?

Oh yeah. Adventure is a 1993 23.5 with a 9.9 long shaft OB with no significant modifications to her (yet).