Sailboats are sposed to heel. Enjoy it while it lasts :-)!
Actually, my info comes from a C34 OWNERS MANUAL that someone kindly posted 'ere quite some time ago.
Another friend on this forum sez: "Wooden
boats are on life support from the moment they are launched. Fibreglass boats you have to ASSASSINATE!" I love that - it's so true.
That a 'frozen snot"
boat is half a century old should not deter an owner from spending a few bux on 'er. But the
money should, of course, be spent on useful things. Messing with the basic design parameters is not one of them :-). But extra
water tankage is certainly useful in a cruising bot, and has nothing to do with ballast or stability or sea-kindliness in the usual sense. Though you could argue, I'm sure, that being able to stay at sea for another week is a form of sea-kindliness :-). 25 gallons weighs about 220 lbs plus the weight of the tank.
As for healing, bring her on a beam reach in 12 knots of
wind and trim her so she's tromping along happily and has just a touch of
weather helm. Look at your clinometer. I doubt that she'll be heeling much more than 7º. If she is, take some pressure off her by easing
sheets until that magic little bubble sez 7º. You won't be losing any speed by doing that, but you will make the ship's company unnecessarily uncomfortable if you don't.
Your last comment, "it sure does heel over when the breeze picks up", suggests that you are holding your sail too long, or sheeting in too hard. This boat relies on her headsl for the drive, which is why, I'm sure, it paid to shorten the boom over time.
Experiment with this. If you have hank on headsls,
experiment to find the one that gives you 7º of heel in 12 knots of
wind on flat water. If you have
roller furling, furl till you get that degree of heel. Then you can trim the
helm by playing with the mainsheet so you have just that magic touch of
weather helm. Play with these things until on flat water in 12 knots of wind you get a boat speed of 6 knots. The theoretical maximum (hull) speed for your boat is about 7.25 knots, but 6.5 is really all you can expect or should strive for. Less if it's choppy to any extent.
Cheers
TrentePieds