When I bought my 36ft narrowboat, the surveyor recommended a brand new steel base plate to be welded to the bottom. This was because of the sample readings of the hull thickness he'd taken. If I remember correctly the thinnest reading was about 4mm. At the time I was new to boating and trusted the surveyor without question. In hindsight I realise that perhaps it wasn't such a necessity to have a brand new baseplate welded to the bottom of the hull. The surveyor was new to the job too and was probably being over cautious. As most will know too, in order to get insurance, you have to satisfy the surveyor's Essential Points in their report. So I didn't have a lot of choice even if I had wanted to forgo this steel plate.
4 years on, I'm now dealing with a very heavy boat due to this extra thickness of hull, along with personal effects and a fit out. The water tank is at the front of the boat under the front deck. When the water tank is full, the drainage holes on the front deck now come right down to the waterline. When the water tank is empty, the weight is all at the back, and my weed hatch starts leaking from the pressure. Not ideal...especially if I need to use that weed hatch when I have run out of water. I'm fairly in tune with my vessel and know through instinct what state she is in, and keep the weight balanced to avert potential disaster.
However, it would be nice to come up with a more satisfying solution to this problem. I've removed as much ballast and personal things as I can get away with. A solution I've been pondering recently is some sort of buoyancy aid. I was thinking I could put some empty large water bottles with their caps tightened firmly in the watertank. As the roof of the water tank is the floor of the front deck, which is at the waterline, I believe this should raise the bow. Obviously it will leave me with less volume in the water tank too.
My questions are then as follows:
- is this a reasonable solution?
- will it make much of a difference?
- if empty water bottles in the water tank will raise the bow, how can I apply this to the stern?
- any other ideas?
Any comments are much appreciated.
M