Balast/flotation problem?....HELP!

[TundraIII]

Bought a project boat 3 months ago, it had been sitting in storage for 5 yrs. The boat was remanufactured by a yacht builder in Bainbridge Island. It was being rebuilt for a yacht owner who was going to use it as a Rib but lost interest in it as the story goes. The boat is beautiful and looks absolutely brand new. The boat was rebuilt in 2001 and had sat in storage ever since. The wiring needed to be finished and I finally got enough of it done to take her out on the water. The boat is a 1984 19ft Trophy center console. It was completely taken apart (top cap seperated from hull) and it received new stringers, new paint, new everything.....including a new engine. It was repowered with a 2000 Yamaha 115 EFI 4-stroke. Have no idea what the original motor was...but would imagine it was a 2-stroke. The transom is the type that is "notched" low..not sure what the proper term is. It has a splash well with two scupper drains. Here's the problem: The scupper holes are at water level and therefore the splash well is full of water at idle speed. The boat does not steer well either because the bow is too far out of the water. If my wife drives the boat and I sit at the bow (I weigh 230lbs), the boat steers 100% better and the splash well is dry with the scupper holes above the water line. This is a 19ft boat and the 115 is a perfect HP for this boat but I dont think it was balanced well for a 4-stroke. I dont think building up the transom is an option because of the length of the motor. I'm thinking that I have a balast problem but inexperience with this issue has me wondering what to do! If anyone has experience with this I sure would like to hear it. I have the boat up for sale as a project and would like to get it fixed first or at least be able to point the new owner in the right direction.

Thanks, Mike

PS. There appears to be no flotation on the hull although the top cap has about 2 1/2 inches of flotation attached to the underside of it. So there is no flotation below the water line. Could this be part of the problem?

[Starfish]

The lack of flotation foam is probably not part of the problem-- flotation foam adds weight, not buoyancy, until the boat is filled with water. You might possibly improve things by adding flotation in the bow area, but the first thing I'd check is the location of the fuel tank and batteries. Any of those that are mounted in the stern could be moved forward and improve your balance. Basically look for anything and everything that could be moved from the stern toward the bow.

After that it's possible to add ballast weight (water bladder or other) to the front of the boat but I'd do that as a last resort only. However, anything you're reasonably going to store on the boat anyway such as anchor/chain, dowrigger balls, spare prop, etc. should certainly be stowed as far forward as possible.

[TundraIII]

Thanks Starfish.....the fuel tank is below deck and cannot be repositioned without MAJOR work. I did fill the tank completely before heading out today but have no idea how large the tank is. I've been looking at it all day and am completely lost at what I can do other than spending huge bucks on an offshore bracket and even that may not be the answer. The splash well drains are at the water level with no gear and no one on board. So it must be a balast issue and or the motor is just too heavy for the style of transom. I may end up just parting the thing out...

[Starfish]

An offshore bracket actually might make things worse by moving the center of gravity even farther astern, if the weight of the motor is the culprit. It really sounds odd... a 115hp 4-stroke shouldn't be nearly too heavy for a 19' boat.

Did you try relocating the batteries? A couple of large deep-cycle batteries moved all the way from the aft to the bow can make a surprising difference (of course it takes some heavy gauge wire to do it so you might want to just float the boat, disconnect the batteries and move them forward as an experiment to see if it levels out.)

Also remember that if the fuel cell location is a problem, you really don't have to do as much work as you might think... you can abandon the existing tank in place (empty) and place another one farther forward, or even all the way in the bow. You might want to drain the fuel out of the tank and experiment with a couple of portables until you figure out if it helps.