Weight Stories...

[ChrisF]

In the end I think Tad's first post (Hi Tad!) has the answer to why boats are always overweight and always will be. With a little experience it isn't impossible to predict from one design to another reasonably closely, and to recognize that the weight budget for some things (electronics for instance) should be increased yearly. But there are strong incentives to underpredict the weight, and not just from the owner. We all know our boats will be faster and generally better if they're lighter (within reason); we HOPE she'll only weigh this much, so we indulge in a bit of wishful thinking in the preliminary weight estimate. This is not entirely a bad thing, I think: it establishes a certain tension that keeps the need to minimize weights in our minds as we work out the details of the design. The boat does come out lighter thereby. The trick I think is to keep it to the level of healthy optimism rather than a damn lie, and be aware that "boats are always heavier" when designing the boat's power, etc.

Of course, the accuracy of the weight study is limited by its budget. On some big boats, everything is weighed as it goes on & off the boat and somebody's full-time job is to track weights. This doesn't make the preliminary estimate that the initial hull shape is based on more accurate, but maybe it helps them adjust. If nothing else, it tells them where to paint the boot top so launch day isn't too embarrassing and they can say "She was underweight" to the press (yeah, but which weight was she under?).