Restoration Blog

Pat's Progressed

Today, we addressed our main issue, that of boat stability and ballasting.

A meeting at WD was held first thing, then we headed off to the boat to see what improvements could be made.  Pat is basically starboard side heavy, due to the large hull water cooler tank in the engine room.  With everything set to default position, there was a distinct list to starboard.

We reorganised the ballast in the rear bilge by first, getting the heaviest lumps  as low as possible and then shifting the majority of it to the port side.  Once this had been achieved, we checked the trim and then optimised it - and it was much improved.  There is a small amount of slack in the JCB boom horizontal movement transit pin.  With the boom resting at both limits, observations of trim were taken. 

The fore and aft trim also looked good.  What was most impressive was the change in the feel of the boat as it moved side to side.  The period of oscillation was about 6.5 seconds, but it no longer gave the impression of tipping too far over.  This was a major improvement.  Checks with the boom fully latched and also stretched out as far as possible showed little difference.  What is important is that the boat's behaviour when in transit is predictable and above all, safe.

There is a small opportunity to further improve matters.  If the weights could be packed more solidly together and therefore kept as low as possible, then there may be a small improvement to be had.  There's some air spaces in the rail and lumps of iron we are currently using.