Overloaded

[chambers1517]

I see in the trailer towing section people speak of the dangers of overloading a tow vehicle. I never see people complain about overloading the boat. I saw a Yamaha 240 at the lake this weekend that looked like it would sink. He had several thousand pounds of ballast added to surf. This seems to be well regarded on the yamaha site. Some of the wakeboard boats can add thousands of pounds of ballast. How can a boat have a weight limit but ballast seems to be ok.

 

[moosehead]

My buddy's Mastercraft takes on 2,700 lbs of ballast. Unreal. All the new wake boats have similar functions to create these tsunamis. I've wondered the same thing, but would guess that weight topsides is much more unstable than ballast added in and around the hull.

 

[oldjeep]

Pretty normal for surf boats. Mine is only a 20ft and has 1250lbs of factory ballast - folks stick more than 1000 more in them. The difference is that you are going 6mph when loaded down like that. Definitely easy to swamp the boat if the driver is not paying attention.

 

[bonz_d]

Yet this is concidered safe! While yet again people cry foul when someone asks about overpowering a boat by 10hp. I don't see the differance.

 

[rallyart]

The same guy that weights his boat for wake surfing is never going to give you a hard time running an engine much too big. The ones who get on someone else's case for overpowering will also get on your case for overloading.
There are some differences with water ballast and people when overloading a boat though. The water ballast does not move around and the people all seem to want to go to the same place. That makes them worse. Now, there are people that add hundreds of pounds of lead or steel shot to ballast their wake boat. That, in my opinion, is just asking for trouble. Water goes neutral when the boat gets swamped. Metal is still really heavy when the boat gets swamped and it more likely to sink fast.

 

[Ned L]

Rallyart makes a very good point here. There is a huge differency between 1200 pounds of water aboard and 1200 pounds of lead or steel. If the boat swamps the effect of 1200 pounds of water completely goes away. The effect of 1200 pounds of lead or steel is still there trying to drag the boat to the bottom.

Though if not handled correctly the effects of 1200 pounds of water can be more dangerous to the handling of the boat than lead or steel (look up "free surface effect").

 

[H20Rat]

Though if not handled correctly the effects of 1200 pounds of water can be more dangerous to the handling of the boat than lead or steel (look up "free surface effect").

Wake ballasts are usually relatively small and contained, it isn't like they are just flooding the bilge. (usually 2 in back, one on each side but not connected, and one ski-locker bladder.)

 

[chambers1517]

People also go neutral when in the water. I don't see how a boat can have a 1200# limit but be allowed to put 2 or 3 thousand pounds of ballast in the boat.

 

[oldjeep]

Yes, the tanks are individual and generally full when surfing - so there is no slosh. The standard boat these days has 4 hard tanks, 2 rear, 1 mid and 1 bow and then the guys who surf will add additional soft sacks on top of the rear sacks and elsewhere in the boat.

The only tank I use in my boat is the bow tank, which helps smooth out my slalom wake - compensates for the engine being in the back.

 

[Ned L]

Oops, Yes I should have elaborated a bit more precisely, I didn't mean to imply that these water ballast tanks present a free surface concern. As pointed out, these water ballast tanks would be relatively small and not allow for much free surface effect.

 

[jestor68]

Interesting discussion, but nobody has addressed the question of actual load capacity.

Every boat I know of is rated to carry X number of people and/or X pounds of stuff ( total weight ).

If you add 1000 lbs of water/ballast, common sense dictates that you just took away 1000 lbs from the boat's rated overall capacity.

For example; my 23 ft boat has a load capacity of 1500 lbs. If I put a ballast bag holding 120 gallons in there, that leaves me just 500 lbs left for everything else.

Or is my thinking wrong; that the ballast doesn't count toward the total weight capacity?

It'd be interesting for a water cop doing a safety check; to ask you how many gallons of water does that tank hold, then do a quick calculation(times 8.3) to see you're over your placarded weight limit with the 5 people in the boat.

What's the fine for unsafe operation?

 

[moosehead]

Mastercraft suggests a fully ballasted wake boat needs do be 600 lbs. less than full USCG capacity to allow for additional crew and gear,this would indicate that a fully ballasted boat would not also be able to accommodate full passenger capacity. http://www.wakemakers.com/resources/mastercraft-plug-n-play-ballast-system/ My buddy's MC swim platform is above waterline with no ballast, and drops underwater when full. See picture in the link above, making it appear that the transom in buried in a fully ballasted setup.

 

[rallyart]

jestor68, almost every boat used for surfing is over 20' so there is no requirement for a capacity plate. It would be difficult to convict on a fine. My boat is 21'8" and is rated for 12 people / 2800# based on information provided to magazines by the manufacturer. None of those numbers are on any documentation that is supplied with the boat and it has no loading plate of any sort.

In answer to your point though, yes, the ballast is part of the total capacity as is the fuel you have on board, all equipment including the weight of the tower, the weight of people and even the beer cooler.