Maths for ballast in a listing hull

[BWM]

5 hours ago, bizzard said:

There are hidden pile warnings dotted about like on the upper Thames and Broads, like, ''Beware hidden piles ! and keep clear hidden piles !'', usually old rotted posts from old landind stages and the like lurking just below the surface. I once moored opposite the Ferry Inn Stokesby with an old hired from Marthom Boats traditional wooden Broads sailing cruiser, I was towing a small sailing dinghy. Woke up next marning, 'thats how they say morning up there' and the dinghy wasn't in sight, looked down and there were its gunnels  just showing. As the tide ebbed it had become impaled upon a sharp bit of old piling which punctured it.

We had a large tyre drift under our boat whilst on our mooring, it was strange because we had a list and the boat still rocked slightly. After a fruitless search for water in the bilge the penny dropped...

[Jen-in-Wellies]

On 18/01/2019 at 11:33, akuaku said:

Thanks so much all for your thoughts. I realise I should have given more info. This relates to my home, one of those 2 storey garden-shed-on-a-skip type static houseboats. It's about 14ft tall and has always listed somewhat due to large cold and hot water cylinders sitting to one side. She's been listing a lot more for the last year or so, I think since I laid down a reclaimed solid beech floor upstairs altho I didn't seem to notice the extra list at first. No water in the bilges thankfully which was my initial fear. 

 

Googling for the formulas brings up lots of confusing stuff for setting keels on sailboats which is why I thought I'd sound out you guys, really appreciate all your help. I like the idea of weighing some mates, making them huddle in the corner and then measuring how much the list has changed. Then it's just a matter of adding up the Bobs and Janes. The way the ballast is being sold means I'm much better off making one order so I need to get it right from the start.  

 

 

Do you have batteries on board, or are you using a land line all the time? My boat had a pronounced list to port. If you are in a marina, then there is a good chance there are plenty of coal sacks around. I found 8x25kg (200kg) sacks on one side was enough to correct the list. As others have said, barrels of water, or people can also be used to see what effect a change in weight will make. To make this permanent I moved the 4 house batteries (25kg each, so 100kg total) from one side of the boat to the equivalent distance on the other side. Moving 100Kg the same distance from one side to the other is the same as adding 200kg of ballast, so if there is anything heavy you can move to rebalance the skip houseboat, then this is the better approach. The further away from the centre it ends up, the more effect it has.

 

Jen

[LadyG]

On 18/01/2019 at 11:58, bizzard said:

It might be aground, resting on a hidden pile under one corner. If so a suppository might help.

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