Ballast

midwestsailor · Post by **midwestsailor** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:37 am

My 8 year old daughter and I spent last weekend scrubbing the interior of our new C22. It cleaned up great and looks almost new (according to my wife). The question that i have is this. while cleaning i found nearly 250 lbs. of ballast tucked into the forward birth cubby holes, equal amounts distrubuted on both sides. ??????? Does anyone else used this much or ANY ballast? I'm scratching my head....

EmergencyExit · Post by **EmergencyExit** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 10:00 am

I almost wonder if someone at some point had a huge outboard on the transom and wanted to balance fore and aft...that's a lot of weight up there. Not being familiar with the C22 up there, how low down in the bow is that weight ?

CaptainScott · Post by **CaptainScott** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 10:04 am

First thing I'd do is remove all the ballast. I've had 4 C22's to date and currenlty still have two of them.None of them have added ballast.

My first thought is maybe the Previous Owner was aware of a common starboard list the C22's have and was trying to compensate for it. Having the sink and stove on the starboard site adds extra weight to the starboard side and causes a list. Even more is the floatation built in under the starbord sette. It becomes water logged over time and adds to the starboard list.

Since I do not use the sink and stove I typically remove them from my boats. Next I move the battery to the port side lazerette as far forward as possible to help rebalance the boat.

This is usually enough for me. If I'm motoring and the boat lists I move my butt to the other side! LOL!

Either way, I'd remove ALL extra balast first thing and go from there. It is generally not a good idea to add unnecessary weight to a sailboat of this size.

Scott

DVD · Post by **DVD** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 10:40 am

I just removed with much effort the Starboard Sink and was shocked at how heavy it was. No added ballast up front for me.

midwestsailor · Post by **midwestsailor** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 6:41 pm

I did take it all out and I'm considering the stove/sink as well. I'm sailing not camping, I have a camper for that. I have the paperwork on the boat from new. It had a 7hp engine on for many years and in the 10 it has the 9.9 it has now. The ballast was in the cubby holes which are at or slightly above the waterline. It would appear to me that perhaps he had several people in the cockpit and needed to offset the rear weight. There are lots of pages on him racing it and calculations on speed and hull designs.

Mario G · Post by **Mario G** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 3:02 am

It might be the PO was tring not to lower the keel to reduce drag or keep from heeling over so much as some of us know how easy it is to splash the rails.

John K · Post by **John K** » Wed May 01, 2013 5:32 am

That's odd. It's a pretty high up place to add weight, in those cubby holes. It seems like it would raise the CG. Maybe he was just trying to increase the tongue weight while on the trailer?