You've made some pretty good reasons why adding, particularly this much,
balast is probably a bad idea. Thanks! The boat as she sits in the slip is
not on her lines, about almost a half inch (me thinks, now) too low.
Putting 720 lbs in the cockpit lowers the after end, raising the bow
correspondingly. Ok! I can tell everyone to get their asses forward which
means really ahead of the cabin trunk. I don't think I'm going to have a
happy crew. These are short races so I need them in the cockpit to pull
strings. I need to balance off the boat. The best I can do is to
compensate with balast far enough forward and low enough to even out the
boat without making her tender. I'm agreed, 800 lbs is too much. but 400
lbs, maybe? I think it remains to be seen come springtime and launch to
see how much we really need, if anything. Getting the bow low enough I
think is important to particularly work to weather. We do fairly well with
a 12 to 15 knot wind . Below that we seem to fail to keep up. That seems
to indicate our healing is improving our water line length. Downwind with
our symetrical spinnaker we beat the hell out of most and I can put the crew
anywhere. On a reach we tend to slip back with a 155% #1 or the spinnaker
if we can carry it.
It's a good discussion, and worthwhile, I hope.
Dave Hoy
WYANOKEE #6295
Camden, Maine
-- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 7:13 PM
Subject: Re: catalina27-talk: Race Sails & Ballast
Dave, without sounding rude, may I ask how much each of your crew weighs?
My goodness, they must be super-sized if you are having that much trouble
keeping the bow down.
They must obviously be forward of the helm, and if they are seated just
aft of the cabin trunk, they cant be contributing THAT much to dragging
your stern. Are you sure there isn't something really heavy in a cockpit
locker or a quarter berth that is contributing to the boat being stern
heavy? Does it float on its lines in the slip or on the mooring? Do you
have a really heavy O/B sticking way out on a mount? (I thought you had an
I/B)
I think the Catalina 27s in and around Annapolis MD are probably some of
the fastest on the planet. To my knowledge, I know of no one who is
employing additional ballast anywhere on the boat. Chris D and Peter Z
would certainly know better than me, but I would be surprised if they
didnt say the same thing. I have raced on a bunch of these myself, both in
Annapolis and Baltimore and Berkeley YC and no one I've ever seen has put
ballast anywhere else besides the keel.
But: if you still feel the need....
however you deploy that lead, it is going to need to be secured so that
every time you pound into a wave it doesnt slam down on relatively lightly
reinforced hull and topsides areas. My boat (hull 2286) had a decent
enough layup, I felt, but it was hardly a Westsail 32 and I would never
have entertained the notion of spreading lead around anywhere but directly
over the keel sump.
If you put 800 pounds of lead in the boat, you then would have a 7600
pound 27 foot boat on less than 22 feet of waterline. Your acceleration
out of tacks will be miserably slow and your light air performance will be
gawd-awful. Your SA/displacement number will be at rock bottom and the
Rangers and Pearsons you race against will be eating your lunch and maybe
your dinner and breakfast, too.
And like Peter or Chris or somebody else said, you really ought to be
balancing the boat by shifting crew weight forward...does no one aboard
want to sit on the rail?
tf
If I spread out 800 lbs. of lead forward of the holding tank is there an
inherent problem taxing or burdening the structure or integrety of the
hull? This is what I estimate is necessary to balance the boat with the
crew in normal position, on her lines, then.
Dave Hoy
WYANOKEE #6295
Camden, Maine
