New to boating, Should i be worried?

[tsubaki]

See the waterline mark.

[Sean]

Dont listen to them, buy my boat, so I can buy MJ's ;D

[Shawsee]

StBalor,

I have a 76 and I also noticed the first time I had her out she sat rather low in the water. After I got her back home and cleaned up I started to look at the way I had the boat stored outside, which was completely level. So I then thought, I wonder if there is water trapped in the bottom of the hull beneath the floor where it could not drain out of the transom drain hole. So I then proceeded to raise the front tongue of the trailer as far up as possible. I ended up using two 4x4 pieces stacked together under the tongue jack. This raised the bow of the boat way up in the air, while the jack was raised up as far as possible. It look scary at first raised up that high but mine never had a problem at all being kept this way. Anyway, the water began pouring out the transom drain hole like there was a flood! There must have been 55 gallons of water trapped in there, just on the bottom of the hull. ::) So now when I park her, I always leave the bow up as high as possible, and now when I launch her, she sits up nice and high in the water.

I am by no means saying this is what will cure your problem, because I am rather new to this boating stuff as well. All I know this has worked for me because I keep my boat outside right now, and rainwater will add up after a while. Good luck and post pictures as the guys suggested.

[parishht]

In our older year V's, it is not unusual to get water in the splashwell.

Just remember to keep it from getting into the bilge area.

StBalor, I do the same with mine, keeping the bow as high as possible,
I have a system of 4 x 4's that I use to support the trailer.
It looks scary, but I keep mine at my vinyl condo
all winter, winds come off the ocean at a pretty good clip
and have not blown her over, yet.

[parishht]

In this picture, you can see where I put the 4 x 4,
right under the joint of teh sidemembers and the tongue:



I also forgot about this picture,
it is not my V, but the arrow points to teh splaswell
and the red dotted lines show how my deck drain hoses
run.
That is why I put corks in the splashwell outlets,
but not in the outlets that drain the seawater out of the splashwell.

[Blue_Runner]

I agree with Shawsee - check to make sure you don't have a bunch of water in there by doing as he suggested. Also, I had a 73 model and it had 2 plugs in the back. One underneath the hull and another in the normal position. Its hard enough to remember one plug let alone 2!

The one underneath was one of those brass garboard styles and the other was the rubber kind that you screw and lock shut. Check that brass one really good to make sure it is sealed...you could be taking water around it (the female part that is screwed to the hull). Other than that, water 4" from top sounds pretty normal, while 3" does sound a little low. Did you have a bunch of friends sitting in the back on a bench seat?

What hp and yr model motor are you running? Pictures or more info would certainly help...if you don't know how to post them just ask and we'll help out.

BLue

[msbhammer]

I would agree that water is trapped in the hull. The two drain holes that are on either side of teh stringers, that drain water into the bilge area is way to high, trapping in water. I noticed this on my project V. I'm filler in the drain hole with cloth and will lower the drain holes so water drains out.

[StBalor]

[quote author=tsubaki link=board=General;num=1186884786;start=15#20 date=08/13/07 at 10:09:59]See the waterline mark.

quote]

Could you post a picture of your splash well from above looking down on it? I want to compare it to mine. I took the boat out again yesterday. Water still a bit choppy. Water constantly coming over the transom into the splash well. Splash well fills up and overflows into the bilge area.

[msbhammer]

When the water overflows, how is it getting into the splash well. Is it coming in through the battery box opening ??? ??? ???

[Blue_Runner]

Sounds like it is coming directly over the notch in the transom where the motor is mounted.

But if that's the case it seems it would not overflow the splashwell because it would just run back out the notch first. ???

It kinda sounds like you are about to sink dude! Be careful! :o

You need to give us some numbers so we can help you out....motor model, horsepower, and yr, max speed and tach would help determine if your hull is too heavy.

Maybe your motor is just too heavy. Who knows? We don't have enough info to diagnose your problem.

Blue