74 Thunderbird leaning to one side!?

[konrad]

Hi everyone, I just want to start off by saying that a lot of you and especially this site has helped me tremendously and probably saved me hundreds of $$$.<br />Recently I've picked up a 74 Thunderbird open bow. Instead of having one big V front (sorry, I don't know the correct terms yet) it has the big V and one small v on each side ( vVv ). It's leaning to the starboard side (right) side. At first I thought it had water on one side, so I drilled holes in the floor but couldn't find any. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Why is it leaning like that? At first when I picked it up I thought that it was just sitting crooked on the trailer. When I dropped it in water it was still leaning to one side. I had to have me on one side and three people on the other to even it out. Am I missing something? Thanks everyone...<br />Konrad

 

[jevery]

Re: 74 Thunderbird leaning to one side!?

It's not unusual for a boat to need some adjustment to float level (port to starboard). It could be that an internal fuel tank is not centered or the battery and anchor are stowed on the same side. These things don't bother some people at all and drive others crazy. Personally I need a level boat. I recently bought a new boat that is significantly heavier on the port side. I removed a floor panel and placed 75 lbs of steel weights between the foam flotation and the floor panel. Lead ballast would have been better, but I had some steel weights on hand. I don't know if adding ballast is the best solution, but it seems to have worked nicely in my case. A redistribution of weight my be the better solution so as to not reduce carrying capacity. Hope this helps.

 

[konrad]

Re: 74 Thunderbird leaning to one side!?

Thanks jevery.
Is it possible that there's a ballast under the floor? There's a little door to the gas tank in the floor, but other than that, there's no way of getting under there? Should I cut the floor and afterwards cover it with some plywood? Would the boat still float afterwards. Someone told me that there could be a ballast with water in there? Before I try to even out the boat now by putting weight on the opposite side, I'd rather find out why it's doing what it's doing and fix that and not put any additional weight in it. Thanks again...

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 74 Thunderbird leaning to one side!?

konrad, there is probably foam between the stringers that is water logged. the thunderbirds were very heavy boats to begin with. my suggestion would be to try and find out what the dry weight of the boat should be, and have it wieghted at a public scale. total weight minus trailer, gas, engine weight, will give you the dry weight, thus telling you if you're hauling something you shouldn't be.

 

[konrad]

Re: 74 Thunderbird leaning to one side!?

thanks tashadaddy@comcast.net, i'm pretty sure that it's not the right weight. the boat is leaning so bad that it's not even touching the trailer rollers on the left side. what's a stringer? are you saying that the foam soaked up all the water on that side? or did the foam just shifted to that side?
thanks....

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 74 Thunderbird leaning to one side!?

i tried to research Thunderbird, and got no where. i remember them when i fisrt learned to ski. this boat is the vintage that MFG's started putting in foam. yes i;m saying the foam very possibly has soaked up water, it's not the first or last boat thats does this, i hate telling anyone to drill a hole in there floor. But i like to use a 1 1/2 inch holesaw that you put in a drill, this lets you keep the plug to fix the hole. you want to drill from inside just deep enough to get the plug out. then investigate with a screw driver , and see if there is moisture. don't knock a hole all the way thru the hull. you may have to drill 2 or 3 holes.

 

[MRS]

Re: 74 Thunderbird leaning to one side!?

Thats a Cathedral hull they made them in Posa Robles (CA) I have a 1970 17ft. with the merc120- mine has two side tanks and it does lisp to the port side. When I load all my stuff for the day I have to load just right so it rides even. They do not make any more I have tried to look up information on boat but have not found any. I also had to adjust the trailer the bunks had slipped on one side so it sat crooked on trailer if you do adjust trailer jack up on edge of transom not on bottom of boat.