Weight Distribution

[ScottM]

I have a 1982 23' Sceptre that I am told was originally powered with twin 200's. It is now powered with a single '89 225 Evinrude. The fuel capacity is 144 gallons. With this current setup, the boat has a slight bow-down attitude while at rest, therefore any rain water has a tendency to flow towards the cabin area. Since the boat originally came with twins, would the weight distribution and/or fuel capacity have been different if she were originally rigged with a single OB to counteract the bow-down attitude? Does anyone have any suggestions for correcting the attitude short of putting twins back on? Would reducing the fuel capacity take care of this, since the tank would now be shorter and not be placing as much weight forward as it does now?

Thanks,
ScottM

[capesams]

Scott m

we have a lot of those here on the cape and most only have 200's or 225's on them. All are sitting in a slip or on the mooring. I have not seen or heard of any with this problem. How much junk do you store up forward? There are other's here that own that same style boat , I would have to say we'll have to wait abit to see if someone spots this and jumps in on the subject.

[AlexT]

As I was reading your post the hair on my neck was starting to stand on end. I may be paranoid (which can be a good trait when working on old boats), because I immediately wondered if you might have water in the hull up forward. Say it aint so.

[JohnB]

Scott ScottM,
Here is a picture of a my '89 at rest.
It's a big jpg
http://www.revcmpsys.com/fishing/picts/boat/1.JPG
Notice that it has a pretty big top on it too.
It sits with the nose slightly up. Is there a possibility that when your boat was
made, it had the gas tank installed more to the bow to compensate for the 2 motors?
When you went to the single motor, maybe it is out of balance.
The other possibility might be water in the bow (oh oh). Where are your batteries
mounted? Mine are in the back. Do you keep your anchor up front.
Let me know what you find out

[ScottM]

Steve,
We don't really store much up front - 1 18# anchor with maybe 250' of line, life jackets, and 6 medium tackle rods.

Alex,
No water up front. I have a bilge pump up there because of the bow-down attitude. The aft pump doesn't see any action while at rest.

JohnB,
I saw pictures of your boat in other discussion topics (very nice by the way) and noticed that your boat sits very level, even slightly low in the stern, just where I would want mine to be. My fuel tank goes as far forward as the cabin door and back about maybe 18" beyond the storage boxes that the helm and passenger seats are on. My feeling is that the tank is in fact set farther forward to compensate for the extra weight of 2 V-6 outboards. Both batteries are in the transom boxes.

Let's put it this way, the transom corners at the chine sit maybe 1" below water.

[Scott]

Hi Scott .... Its Scott [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Welcome
Do you just have one large tank??? Is there anyway you could slide it aft a little to change that balance point. I know in some of the older boats , mine included there are no bulkheads for the tank .... so in theory you could slide mine forward or aft. How much water pools...I mean If a 150 lb person jumps on the stern does that fix the problem??

Now you might have a live well or two in the way ..
Just a thought!!!