Water Ballast?

[LRH]

Ahoy Maties,

Having owned several sailboats over the years, I'm cosidering one with water ballast. Would love to get feedback, pros and cons, from experienced
mates.

Thanks,
Ol' Capt Les

 

[Dan Hill]

I sailed a h240 for a few years and loved it. Ballast doesn't kick in til your close to 10-12° heal but is doable. Reef early is the key. Learn the tricks to keeping heal to a minimum and they perform very well. Keep ballast valve closed at all times while sailing, entrapment of the water in the ballast is the key.

Only drawback for me was headroom.

Good Luck!

 

[Bob 04 H260]

I have owned two water ballasted boats and was very pleased with both of them. They are bit more tender to begin with but stiffen up quick enough, not as tender as most people think. You do not have to raise the ballast out of the water before it becomes effective as many people believe. They are great to trailer, sit low down, less wind trailering. Easy to launch yourself on a ramp.

I sailed a H260 for a few years. I had the opportunity to switch back and forth between a Hunter 260 and Hunter 270 in the same body of water on the same day. They are exactly the same boat except the 260 has water ballast and a 6 ft center board while the 270 has 3.5 ft lead wing keel. Both boats weigh about the same and had 10 hp outboard motors. We have also sailed them side by side. The 270 responds more slowly to a gust of wind but in the end both seemed to heel about the same amount, I assume a lot has to do with form stability. I think the 270 can point a bit higher than the 260, but the 260 is faster down-wind with the center board up. Overall I felt they were fairly close in terms of speed and comfort.

good luck, Bob

 

[Ray Bowles]

I owned and sailed a 1995 H260 and was very happy with the performance, quality and room. I have also owned 2 other trailer boats that were weighted centerboard ballasted. I rate the water ballasted Hunter as the best. The tender issue is not a problem and as a sailor becomes better with his skills the H260 is a first rate performer.
The ability to leave 2000#'s of water ballast at the lake make towing this boat a dream. We towed our boat 1100 miles to sail a new area and our 1/2 ton pickup with a 6 cylinder engine had no problems with the dual axle trailer and boat.
Ray

 

[Benny17441]

The water ballast is a feature for a trailerable boat. It maximizes the size to weight relationship for ease and convenience of trailering. It lowers the cost of trailering and makes for easier retreivals while providing a larger boat than would be possible with a fixed ballst boat. In boat design every choice is a compromise and water ballast is no exeption. It results in a more tender boat relying on a center board to maintain pointing ability. There is added procedures to fill and empty the tank and maintenance associated with the tank and board. Not all water ballast boats are created equal. Hunter makes a couple of nice ones. The choice beetwen a trailerable or fixed ballasted keel boat is a different topic but to me the best reason for choosing a trailerable is to travel. It means the boat can be moved by road in a relative short period of time to sail varied sailing venues.

 

[finding41]

I love out water ballasted Mac 26D. Like mentioned above, reef early and work the sails until you find what works best.
I put a bit of pool Corine in the ballast to keep it fresh and critters out. I keep mine slipped all summer.
Great boat!

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

The Hunter Water ballasted boats were designed specifically for the trailer sailor. I was involved with all the boats during that time which is why I know the answer.

 

[dlandersson]

I was going to write, the Mac26D and the Mac26S are known to be pretty nice sailboats.

Water ballast boats are more tender (5-10 degrees), then stiffen up quickly.

I love out water ballasted Mac 26D. Like mentioned above, reef early and work the sails until you find what works best.
I put a bit of pool Corine in the ballast to keep it fresh and critters out. I keep mine slipped all summer.
Great boat!

 

[Jim Seamans]

LRH,
Don't underestimate the H260. It can be very fast and sails well..
In 2001, in my H260 I beat a bunch of Hunters in the Chesapeake Rendezvous. To this day they are still mad at me....No way that tub could beat us, did you have your engine on????

edit: BTW, I blamed this win on Peggy Hall for giving me the winning solution!

 

[Ray Bowles]

One last thought on the H26. It has an huge amount of cabin space compared to just about every other water-ballasted boat. We would spend a week to 10 days on different waters every summer and the boat could carry all the supplies for the 2 of us. We had a marine head with a 25 gallon holding tank so we could stay out that long.
Ray

 

[Doc_holiday]

I would much rather deal with a water ballast than with a hunk of iron on a breakable cable (yes I lived that) and a winch.

 

[chp]

As others mentioned reef early, have all the sail controls possable and enjoy other bodies of water. 2 of the best things I added to mine was line reefing and a traveller. Before the traveller I would have to reef when wind got up over 10 knts. With the traveller I can run full sail to about 15 knts and keep my water ballast mac at 20 degrees of heel and 6.5-7 knts of speed. We did the North Channel for a week which was 550km from home. Pulled it with a Ford Ranger 4x4 with no problems and managed 15-17MPG. My friends with thier full keel boats wished they could do the same trip. I do like the Hunters. If I could of afforded one I may have went with that as they have a ton of room inside. I also really like the Hunters and will have a large cruiser when I retire.