SwampThing
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2006
- Messages
- 117
Does your boat lean to one side while sitting still in the water?
I have an 1986 20ft bayliner cuddy and I've noticed a slight lean to the right.
I had to deal with wet foam undeer the flooring that I mentioned in another thread. Prior to removing the foam, I had a bad lean to the right as that was the side with the most saturated foam. This was also causing major steering issues.
Now all the wet foam is out and the flooring is new, stringers, transom, etc is all good. I've been out several times since and I'm not taking in water anywhere. Still the boat leans ever so slightly to the right. However all the instability in steering is gone. Prior to removing the wet foam, I actually had to fight the wheel and it was down right unsafe.
I was surmising that the lean I feel is now because of the two large marine batteries located on that side of the boat in the rear. Also most of the controls; steering cables, dash, etc, are all located on the right side.
So I took the batteries and weighed them. 50lbs each for a total of 100lbs.
Doesn't seem like a lot of weight. I took and equal amount of weight (old weight machine weights) and put on the left side in a location equal to the batteries on the other side. That evened out the lean perfectly, except it's too much weight in the rear of the boat and the boat just doesn't feel right running above half throttle. It's also not sitting properly on the trailer because of all the weight in the rear. So this is not going to work.
What I think I'm going to have to do is install longer cables and move one of the batteries to the other side of the boat in order to resolve the issue.
My real question(s) is; Does your boat lean also? Is this "normal"? It's down to a real slight lean now, but it drives me nuts! There are several bayliners identical to mine in the marina that I launch from that I've noticed all have the same slight lean to the right. They're I/O models and mines the Force outboard though. Battery weight? I know the v-hull design lends itself to more sensitivity to roll or lean on the water. There is a large whale tail installed on the motor but I'm talking at a dead float.
I'm use to boats that sit perfectly flat in the water, so it's like I said, this drives me nuts. Is there something I'm missing here? There's no hull distortion that I can tell of. No spider webbing or cracking that would indicate a weak or over flexing hull. I just don't know. What's everybody else's experiences like? I see smaller boats coming in all the time with too many large people on board that don't seem to have this issue. Seriously, I saw a 16 footer come in with 6 people all over the 200 lb range the other night.
I have an 1986 20ft bayliner cuddy and I've noticed a slight lean to the right.
I had to deal with wet foam undeer the flooring that I mentioned in another thread. Prior to removing the foam, I had a bad lean to the right as that was the side with the most saturated foam. This was also causing major steering issues.
Now all the wet foam is out and the flooring is new, stringers, transom, etc is all good. I've been out several times since and I'm not taking in water anywhere. Still the boat leans ever so slightly to the right. However all the instability in steering is gone. Prior to removing the wet foam, I actually had to fight the wheel and it was down right unsafe.
I was surmising that the lean I feel is now because of the two large marine batteries located on that side of the boat in the rear. Also most of the controls; steering cables, dash, etc, are all located on the right side.
So I took the batteries and weighed them. 50lbs each for a total of 100lbs.
Doesn't seem like a lot of weight. I took and equal amount of weight (old weight machine weights) and put on the left side in a location equal to the batteries on the other side. That evened out the lean perfectly, except it's too much weight in the rear of the boat and the boat just doesn't feel right running above half throttle. It's also not sitting properly on the trailer because of all the weight in the rear. So this is not going to work.
What I think I'm going to have to do is install longer cables and move one of the batteries to the other side of the boat in order to resolve the issue.
My real question(s) is; Does your boat lean also? Is this "normal"? It's down to a real slight lean now, but it drives me nuts! There are several bayliners identical to mine in the marina that I launch from that I've noticed all have the same slight lean to the right. They're I/O models and mines the Force outboard though. Battery weight? I know the v-hull design lends itself to more sensitivity to roll or lean on the water. There is a large whale tail installed on the motor but I'm talking at a dead float.
I'm use to boats that sit perfectly flat in the water, so it's like I said, this drives me nuts. Is there something I'm missing here? There's no hull distortion that I can tell of. No spider webbing or cracking that would indicate a weak or over flexing hull. I just don't know. What's everybody else's experiences like? I see smaller boats coming in all the time with too many large people on board that don't seem to have this issue. Seriously, I saw a 16 footer come in with 6 people all over the 200 lb range the other night.
