Ballast issue

Hope this is posting within the correct section. I have a fiberglass 1973 Corsiar 40' Cruise-A-Home house boat that I've been remodeling. And I'm concerned coming to the end of the project because with all things of any weight have been installed and the boat has a slight lean to starboard
It's always had this stance since I've owned the boat. Placing a level on the floor it's 1-3/4" in 4' so being 12' wide its 5-1/4" total. That's only an assumed total as I've never checked it from its furthest points. And that does seem to be alot. My question is what would be my best options for righting the boat. Ballast bladders? Lead? Concrete? So that my shower drains. And my eggs stay in the center of the pan. In calm weather.
Thanks for the forum. And any advise is much appreciated.

 

A belated welcome to the Forum Joe.

I am not too sure about your measurements - are you saying that there is a drop of 1-3/4" over the 4' length of the spirit level when the bubble of the level is lined up level?
If so, then the tangent of the angle appears to be 1.75 / 48, or 0.036, giving a heel angle of 2 degrees.
Can you post some photos of the boat with her current list / heel?

Re getting her back level, have you carried out a rough tally of all the weights on board the vessel, including their distance to port or starboard of the centreline, to see if there is any possibility that any of them can be shifted a bit to reduce the list?

Edit - some info about Cruise A Home 40' Corsairs here -
Cruise·A·Home Owners Page https://cruiseahome.com/

And also edited again later to correct my previous heel angle calculation.

 

Need more details.

Cruise a home were vee hulls and fiberglass, but one must validate there is no water ingress causing the issues.

I don't know if Reinell ever messed with balsa core, but the 70s were when some did. If you had a cored hull half soaked; or a watertight full; it may explain much.

It would be pretty poor advice for anyone to recommend you ballast a 50 year old boat before determining if water has caused the issues.

If you can take any closeups of the starboard hullside from inside or starboard bilge or both; we may be able to tell if you have a cored hull. Unpainted areas are best if there are any..paint makes it impossible to tell

I am sorry if I am sounding scary, but a 5" list is pretty significant in 12 feet and requires some evaluation versus a ton of sand on tbe port side.

Another way you can tell is to push on the boat on the starboard side hull bilge area say by the engines. See if there is movement of the fiberglass or if it seems like your boat has an inside liner ..... hoping not

 

No the hull is not cored. Its solid fiberglass and my bilge compartments are all painted anyway. The measurement was taken from inside the boat on a flat floor. Using my 48" level. The total 5-1/4" number is just me multiplying the 1-3/4" x3 because the boat is 12' wide . The cabin is only 8'6" wide. And like I was saying 5-1/4" is alot. And looking at the boat from the outside its noticeable if your looking for it. But once inside it becomes obvious from things like the shower pan holding water on starboard side or the countertops holding water against the wall or the backsplash area. And things of this nature.

 

For what I understand, your measurements indicate a 2deg slope (1.85deg). Production motorcraft (tends to have this kind of heel, because the weight distribution of their generous number of options is difficult to center. Lead is very often use before marketting to correct this. But before doing that, you must made the checking proposed by Fallguy and Bajansailor.

If the structural integrity of your boat is OK and if you have check that the water in the boat and in the composite are no game players, then your weight quote should be checked and compared with the one of the boat manufacturer. And stability calculations should be made, in order to fully take into account, not only the transversal positions of the loads, but also their vertical positions. If you find this solution too expensive (time or money), then at least, check that your weight quote do not exceed the maximum weight allowed by the manufacturer. If not, consider centering the main weights on the boat. After that, and only in the range of the maximum allowed weight, you could eventually put ballast weights. Otherwise, remove weights, and re-center.

But remember Fallguy's comment : Do NOT ballast this boat without any minimal checks.

 

Given no ingress, the next thing you need to do is a weight study; perhaps along with a diet plan. But first, one more query from me.

The marketing says this boat has 6-7 watertight compartments. Have you verified those are dry, or is watertight a loose term in their marketing? If there are watertights that have been breached; a slight list would also be exacerbated as the water mass is now also added to the listing side. It is not a free lunch; so to speak. So, you must verify they are all dry or you are fighting a losing battle.

Because the boat is a vee hull with lotsa reserve; they are tolerant of error, but not without displaying it. Think of that vee as a fulcrum on a seesaw.

I am in a marina with lotsa barge styled houseboats. They tend to load them with 20 years of stuff. And the cruise a home will not tolerate this style of housekeeping well. On my small 16' skiff, I put it on a 'diet' one day and removed 83 pounds of stuff and added back a new motor and fuel of 40 pounds for a net change of 43 pounds which was noticeable on hole shot because most of the weight was an engine change.

Mass up high should also not be neglected as it has a greater effect. For example, a water soaked top deck made with plywood and soaked would cause exactly this 5" list. Same with stuff up top on the fb. It is highly likely you have ply on top and at this age; it may be fully soaked on one side or both and the existing list is worse with the excess high weights. Even a fully soaked top deck would make any list worse as the high weights really have a big effect. So, rule this out.

After you run the diet and verify no rooftop water, measure again. Sandbags are a cheap way to do some tests and they can be returned if you don't break them. They come in 70 pound bags, but be real careful with them. I hurt my back last summer messing with them in similar fashion. I'm a strong man, but 70 pound bags are plenty much for most people. Dolly them out to the dock as well. Get help or use a board to roll them onto the boat.

Assuming you have a portside deck; star on the aft section and place one bag at a time onboard and measure the change.

If you find someone with a digital level; it is better to use a long straightedge, but you should see some changes. This is simply an evaluation.

You currently have a list of 2 degrees.

tan^-1(5.25/144)=2.08

Another thing to pay attention to during this exercise is all tanks. If the water tank is on the starboard side; measure with it full or half full. Fuel tanks, if duals, need to be close to each other at least.

Eventually, you will be able to determine how far off you are..

Something to consider, after evaluation is moving water tanks. For example, if you have a 70 gallon water tank on the listing side; moving it to the other side may be one of the simplest ways to make a large change. Some here may consider it dynamic, but 70 gallons of water is about 600 pounds or 9 bags of sand for the cost of a few hundred dollars in new poly tanks and pex plumbing (assuming you have a spot and they are on star side). I mention this because I had to move my water tanks aft 17 feet last year for a trim issue on a new build. It took me like two days..but a big return on trim.

It is quite common for people to vanish after they post these types of queries, but for the edification of others; please consider sharing your findings.