bow ballast tank

Mike_G · 10-03-2009, 01:23 PM

I was wondering what size of ballast tank (how many litres) should I put to 23 ft boat with single outboard and fuel tank located in the back. Boat will be rigged for racing.

Any ideas??

Mike

Mike_G · 11-03-2009, 06:32 PM

any sugestions would be great

Mike_G · 11-03-2009, 07:03 PM

Or maybe should I leave bow tank idea and fly high with it ??

larby · 11-03-2009, 09:43 PM

Ok, well i have no idea about boat building but seeing as no one else has a suggestion I'll start!

Water weighs 1kg per litre. Not sure how salt water varies from that but i can't imagine it's a huge difference!
An average outboard wouldn't weigh more than about 200kg say? Can't imagine you'd need more than that up front.
I once had 70kg of concrete up front in a R16 and it didn't make much difference. I think my mate's kevlar P20 has about 100 litres up front.

Going by that, I'd say make it 150 litres, 100 may be enough though. Less than that won't be enough, and 200 would be overkill i'd imagine.
Other things to consider would be getting it as far forward as possible so less weight is needed for the same effect and as low as possible.

James

HT20 · 13-03-2009, 05:57 PM

My boat is rigged with a 100-120Litre bow tank, it`s a twenty fot Hydrolift, single engine with a110Litre fueltank in the back.

Huge difference with the bow tank filled. The boat feels feather-light in the front with no water in the tank.
And good in the rough with the tank full.

So anywhere from 100-120Litres would be good..