Keeping the Weight Off ...

[Lagoon4us]

All boats are at their lightest when first wetted, from there its all downwards with the waterline repainted every now and then to compensate.

What rules do you apply to successfully keep you boat trim?

1) A seasonal spring clean?
2) Only food/drink is EVER bought on board?
3) Cupboards only are used for storage with no plastic bins or boxes allowed?

Does it matter to you?

Cheers

[FSMike]

Don't ever change the waterline. If you need to, start unloading crap until it's not necessary.

[SaucySailoress]

We have a monhull so it's not that big an issue

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by Lagoon4us

1) A seasonal spring clean?

Like my house, when there is no room to cram ***t in, it's time to throw ***t out.....then i can cram so more ***t in, and round and round it goes......

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by SaucySailoress

We have a monhull so it's not that big an issue

Kate having twenty years of experience sailing my 35' mono and a lifetime of building all sorts of boats from 28 to 135 feet and observing so many heavily laden boats in marina's worldwide i believed the thread to be very relevant.
Maybe i was wrong? Has happened before....i think.

[IslandHopper]

But to answer your question, yes it does matter....basic stability, keep your lines on, or above....for lots of reasons that i am sure you know....

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by Lagoon4us

Does it matter to you?

Cheers

After a year living aboard I unpacked the boat and was astonished how much stuff I had on the boat. I was also amazed at how much of it didn't need to be on board.

I'm about to start another live aboard cycle but I'm splitting my time between two boats, one in Victoria and the other Gabriola. Casa Miga in Victoria is really a float home on a hull and the reason for it is that I don't want to tie Honeysuckle to a dock and fill her with crap. She'll stay light and trim and ready to cruise on her mooring.

Hopefully this will prove to be an incredibly clever strategy and not just an excuse to accumulate twice as much crap.

[Katiusha]

We did two autumn cleans about 4 and 2 years ago, because we thought we had too much stuff. Both times it turned out that we didn't have any unnecesary things.

Living aboard full time and being DIY types, we carry the full tool set (including electric tools), full chemical set, set of spares, full galley set, food for 2-4 weeks minimum, some toilettries and clothes. The hidden weight came from having 3 anchors with chain on board, a life raft, fishing, diving gear.

Books were one thing we could trim on. But it still came to A LOT of stuff. To empty out the boat, we filled an equivalent of a small room (half way to the ceiling).

Our two rules are that nothing can show - everything must be in the lockers, and port and starboard must be weight balanced.

[mrohr]

Weight is a constant concern even now when I no longer live aboard or race,it takes constant vigilance not just to keep it off ,but to constantly reconfigure stowage so that it remains low.
When cruising with a larger monohull, tools, spares ,books,seemed the worst offenders; but if you look at all with a critical eye and common sense, you will find that stuff like extra gallons of bottom paint etc. can purchased somewhere as needed and weight and stowage space are improved .
Credit card and cash don't weigh much .

[stevensuf]

its one issue where monos win hands down!

[donradcliffe]

This is a CRUISERS forum, and real cruisers just raise the waterline.

I weighed everything I took off the boat when I sold it after 17 years of living aboard and circumnavigating, and figured that it sailed at about 7500 pounds heavier than when it was launched. That agreed with what travel lift operators told me on their load cells. The boat also floated about 4 inches higher when it was emptied.

You can't obsess about the weight. The boat will get there with the extra load, it just takes a bit more time. You can't obsess about where the weight goes either. You don't take the anchors and chain off the bow or the scuba compressor out of the stern. You just learn to live with it.

Ask yourself--would you rather have a happy wife with 200 pounds of clothes and 40 pounds of cosmetics, or would you rather have an unhappy wife.

As a racer, we had a 45 ft Bene which won every regatta we entered, but we made sure that we entered the 'liveaboard cruising' class where we weren't competing with stripped raceboats.

[dandrews]

Originally Posted by Katiusha

We did two autumn cleans about 4 and 2 years ago, because we thought we had too much stuff. Both times it turned out that we didn't have any unnecesary things.

Living aboard full time and being DIY types, we carry the full tool set (including electric tools), full chemical set, set of spares, full galley set, food for 2-4 weeks minimum, some toilettries and clothes. The hidden weight came from having 3 anchors with chain on board, a life raft, fishing, diving gear.

Books were one thing we could trim on. But it still came to A LOT of stuff. To empty out the boat, we filled an equivalent of a small room (half way to the ceiling).

Our two rules are that nothing can show - everything must be in the lockers, and port and starboard must be weight balanced.

"full chemical set"? Not sure what you mean by this.

Regards, Don

[Cheechako]

You need to re evaluate if you want to keep carrying things. It's amazing how many things come out of a boat when you sell her. " I forgot we even had this stored under the 1/4 berth!" It seems there's always more than one way to skin a cat.... you dont need every handy device you ever thought of while you were boat prepping rather than cruising..
"We have a monhull so it's not that big an issue "
BTW: My 42' cat went down 1.75 " when I transferred directly from my 47' mono... and the mono was down 5"!! In fact I had bottom painted completely over the boot stripe!

[downunder]

Originally Posted by SaucySailoress

We have a monhull so it's not that big an issue

Would not be that big of an issue on Lagoon 440 either.

Bottom line is with boats you need some dicipiline to not treat it like a house.

[Lagoon4us]

We cruised and raced our mono and were fairly vigilant on weight, tools were the most common offender, our 32 foot cat was next and tools once again along with our kids accumulation of fishing gear, at one time 15 rods, not to mention the diving gear, crab pots etc....

I posted this thread more to catch the interesting issues people come up with, i laugh and agree about carrying paint around when you CAN buy it elsewhere but we hoard just the same.
Just two of us on a Lagoon 440...Agreed not an issue. Cheers