Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:

Those of you who have followed the speed saga of my Ranger 200C
Sportfisher, it has now entered a new chapter.

I got this idea to weigh the boat/motor/trailer fully rigged with
T-top, full fuel/oil/batteries and trolling motor on a certified
scale.

Is this the same boat you were bragging about it's gs
mileage a while back? Have you ever measured the fuel
consumption of the tow vehicle?

"Heavy" always costs.


Which means that the boat is about 1,000 to 1,200 lbs over weight all
by it's lonesome.


That's a lot.


Bert Robbins wrote:
You primary problem is easily solved by hanging a 300HP Yamaha HDPI off
the stern.


That's a smart answer.

Anyway, the issue could be one of waterlogged flotation. Not
all foam is created equal and lots and lots (and lots &
lots) of boats have been built with foam that will absorb
water. But it can also be dried out. You may have to cut
some access and aim a heat gun into the voids (flotation
spaces).

Another likelihood is that the boat was built overweight.
Almost all production fiberglass boats are built with more
glass and way more resin... it's cheaper than the labor to
do proper lay-ups. Plus I think the fumes make the workers
think it's funny to just glob the stuff in there. The result
is hulls/decks that are weaker & heavier than designed, and
a great reason why cored construction has such a poor
reputation.

I've known of 15' sailboat hulls that were supposed to weigh
120lbs as designed, and would support a truck if built as
designed, to come out weighing 300lbs and oilcan like crazy.

Fiberglass is awesome engineering material, but like
anything else, it takes good workmanship to produce a good
product. And it's lot cheaper to buy advertising to convince
people of it's "high quality" than it is to actually build
it that way, the more so sincemost people will never notice
the difference.

Gee that turned into a rant, didn't it? Sorry.

Fair Skies
Doug King