Beyond The Pond
Weights and Balance
By Bruce W. Smith
Boat
Running A Little Slow These Days?
Check Your Lockers
A few months ago I was doing a couple boat reviews at Table
Rock Lake for an Internet magazine. In the process, a bass
fisherman who’d been watching the late afternoon proceedings,
idled up to where I was taking a few last minute notes.
“You seem to know a lot about bass boats, and I was wondering
if you all had a minute after you’re finished?” he asked
sheepishly. “My boat just isn’t running like it used to. Sure
like to get an opinion what the problem might be. She doesn’t
have that many hours on the motor.”
I finished up and took a stroll down the line of slips to
where the fellow was standing beside his sharplooking
dual-console Stratos. It was a 19-footer, running a Merc 200.
You could tell the guy was a serious bass fisherman by the
multiple fishfinders, a deck full of expensive rods, and a decal
with the name of the bass club he belonged to proudly displayed
on the windshield. The carpet was a little worn, but everything
was clean and tidy.
“When I bought this boat a couple years back, she’d run close
to 70 mph on the GPS,” he explained. “Now I can’t seem to get
past 65 on a good day. And I haven’t changed a thing.”
After going through the normal visual checks of the prop for
nicks and dings, we went for a run. Sure enough, 64 mph was the
limit. The engine was strong, as one would expect for a
three-year-old outboard.
“Nice running boat. Do you keep a pretty good amount of
tackle aboard?” I
asked when we secured the last dock line. This question was
prompted after I noticed his boat just didn’t seem to have much
bow lift even though it was rigged with a small jackplate.
“Yeah, got just about everything I own stored in the lockers.
That was one of the reasons I like this boat; lot’s of storage
space. When I go out, I like to be ready for anything,” he
announced proudly.
“Let’s yank some of the gear out and take it for another
run.” Indeed, my new-found friend had used every available inch
of his boat to store gear. He had a spare trolling motor in one
rod locker, a quality anchor with
a 10-foot length of anchor chain and 100-feet of rope in the
forward dry storage locker, a spare prop and several big plastic
tackle boxes in the main storage compartment. He also had
numerous soft tackle bags stuffed here and there. In short, his
Stratos was stocked better than the local Wal-Mart.
After the dock walkway was piled high, we headed back out for
another run. The GPS ran easily up to 67 mph and with a bit of
fine-tuning the trim, it eased to 68 and change. The bow
responded readily with a touch of the finger trim, too. On a
cool winter day she’d clip 70. Problem solved.
“You mean that little bit of gear makes all that difference
in how she runs,” my bass fishing friend asked as we dropped off
plane. “I’ll be jiggered.”
Yes, it does.
Moving 30 or 40 pounds of weight around in a boat that is
designed to carry 800 or 900 pounds seems insignificant. But
when a two- or three-percent shift in weight adds three- or four
mph to top speed, shaves time
off a boat’s ability to get up on plane, and improves overall
fuel economy, then it becomes a big deal to some.
Performance in any boat is all about leverage—be it a 12-foot
johnboat with a 9.9, a 16-foot aluminum deepvee with a 50, or a
21-foot high-performance bass boat running a 300.
Think of your bass boat as an old-fashioned lever-and-fulcrum
used to lift a
heavy rock. The rock is the bow. The prop is the point of
downward pressure used to lift the rock, and in between is the
fulcrum, which in the case of a boat is a point on the water
between the driver’s seat and the transom.
To lift the bow after the boat breaks over on plane, the
engine is trimmed
upward, which points the prop downward. When that happens, the
prop tries to push the stern down. But water doesn’t compress.
So leverage instantly takes place and the bow lifts.
The higher the bow lifts, the amount of hull in the water
gets less. The less hull in the water, the less hydrodynamic
drag and the faster the boat runs—and the more efficient the
whole package becomes.
Now think about the weight issue. When more weight is located
ahead of the fulcrum point, the more difficult it is to lift the
rock. In this scenario, the more weight that is located forward
of the driver, the more difficult it is for the prop to lift the
bow.
Lighten the forward weight and you ease the lifting process.
Simple.
That’s why keeping a close eye on weight, and the balance
point, in your
boat is so critical to the way it runs. If you must carry
everything you own in the boat, keep the heaviest items aft of
the console. You’ll still sacrifice some top speed, but not as
much as if the weight was way forward.
If speed and overall efficiency is important, keep weight
minimized and
balanced.
Too many bass fishermen forget that concept when the buy a
boat. They keep stacking in more and more gear without taking
any out. Then they wonder why it starts slowing down as time
goes on.
Sure, it could be the outboard getting tired and losing
horsepower; or water accumulating in the floatation foam adding
a lot more weight to the boat; or a little hook developing in
the hull bottom that keeps the bow from lifting like it should.
But the first place to begin looking for causes of lost speed
and general performance might be within hand’s reach. You might
be surprised at what you find after doing a little chuckin’ and
movin’ around in those compartments. BCD
