Additional Bow weight

[steplift20]

Me personally I don't like it, first your taking away valuable space up front and who wants bags of sand on your boat. Your talking about a 20 wellcraft I assume, I would move the battery's up front closer to the bow area, what is going to happen is you are removing weight from the stern first and adding weight to the bow, think about that you remove one battery weights about 40 lbs and adding it up front 40 lbs up front assuming the battery is 40 lbs.if you take two that's 80 off the stern and 80 up front, dump the sand bags , just my 2 cents
Or you can take my with you,I weight 240 and I will fish up front than you don't have to move anything lol

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by steplift20

Or you can take me with you, I weight 240, and I will fish up front. Then you don't have to move anything lol

[SkunkBoat]

add a hard top....

[Dschaffer]

Thanks for the replies. I'll attach a picture of where the bags are. I feel pretty confident that it's not too much weight structurally speaking but I think I will remove one bag and see if it still maintains the great ride. I could put them in the locker in the cuddy but I like that space for my gear. Where they are now maybe was meant for anchor line? Anyway, thanks again. After viewing the pictures, if you feel it's obviously a mistake to have the bags there, please let me know. On a side note, when going to retrieve my boat from the lake last night, a bunk floated off of the trailer. I was able to use ratchet straps to get it back in place but it appears to have been rotted for quite a while and there is damage to the hull. I have no idea what to do about the damage to the fiberglass. I will replace the bunks asap. If y'all have any experience with this, I'd appreciate your insight. Thanks again

[Dschaffer]

Better pictures

[SkunkBoat]

Don't like the dead weight. you would be better off moving the battery(s) since you would not be adding weight but redistributing it. more effective and leaves you able to carry more gas/ice/people/FISH!.

[steplift20]

Don't get mad at me but that's horrible first your putting a lot of weight in that space and taking away valuable useable space that you can use.try moving the battery s ,where do you keep your anchor and rode? That's where I put mine.

[Destroyer]

Gotta agree with the others. While the extra weight will work, it's much better to try redistributing the weight you have rather than adding more. Remember that EVERY pound you add is one more pound that your engine has to push which equals more gas used and less speed attained. Just something to think about...

[Duke01]

If you decide to move your batteries forward, I would make an effort to put them up in the cuddy wherever possible. I moved my two batteries to a compartment forward of the gas tank on my 78 cuddy, about mid-ship. It did not have the impact I had hoped. I have my two spare 3 gallon cans up on the cuddy (every little bit helps).

[Dschaffer]

Originally Posted by Destroyer

Well, actually a good solution for your problem would be to add trim tabs. That way you can adjust for forward weight, aft weight, side to side trim, etc. Of course they only work while underway, so you have to take that into account and adjust accordingly. But they work really well and you can compensate for changing sea conditions on the fly, which you cannot do with dead weight.

Thanks. Trim tabs are on the list but 95% of my boating is trolling for salmon so they won't really do much for me.

Originally Posted by Duke01

If you decide to move your batteries forward, I would make an effort to put them up in the cuddy wherever possible. I moved my two batteries to a compartment forward of the gas tank on my 78 cuddy, about mid-ship. It did not have the impact I had hoped. I have my two spare 3 gallon cans up on the cuddy (every little bit helps).

Thanks. I moved two of the 3 sand bags from the very forward compartment to the forward locker and even that little change meant I now take on water. It's still much better then pre sandbags though. I can understand why moving the batteries to mid ship would do little. If you do trying adding wait to the fore most compartment, be warned that you will absolutely love the ride. It is night and day different. The boat gets right up on plane and tracks amazingly. I no longer feel the need for autopilot when trolling.