[omc-boats] Weighing-In on Waterlogging

Sorry for the pun.....But......

With the recent interesting discussions on water-logged foam and then more recently replacement trailers and weights, I thought I'd add this note of caution.

Weighing on public scales should NOT be your only method for discovery of water-logged foam.
Here's why:

Establishing a "dry" baseline or reference weight is very difficult. There are just too many variables. When the factory published their weights, obviously the boats/motors had no owner accessories or mods added. Forty years have passed. A lot can change.

Also, each year the E/J/O boats were subjected to rigorous testing. When anything broke or vibrated loose, it was re-designed or strengthen, sometimes in mid-model year. What that means is that there were and are significant weight differences between otherwise identical boats. (Some of the published weights actually reflect this gradual weight increase from year to year in the brochures.)

The other difficulty in establishing a "dry" weight baseline is determining a dry hull displacement (weight) vs. a combined trailer-hull and even tow vehicle weight on a public scale. My guess is the factory had the advantage of weighing the boats and trailers separately, where we typically don't. Unless you know the accurate weight of just your trailer, dragging your rig across a public scale is sort of meaningless and of course you have to eliminate the tow vehicle weight from the weigh-in, duh!

I'm suggesting that unless you take everything out of your boat (including fuel) you most likely are going to be surprised at how heavy your scale slips read. This could leave you to believe your boat is (falsely) water-logged, when it actually isn't. IMHO, the other methods that have already been described in recent posts for determining if underfloor waterlogged foam conditions exist are all far better methods, than trying to measure weight increases.

One thing for sure, weight is the enemy when it comes to performance and fuel economy. I was out with our kids skiing this weekend and I'll always amazed at how I can feel the different weights of various skiers coming up out of the "hole." And that's with a the torque of a V8 swinging a 13-inch pitch prop.

Speaking of props ...Keep 'em spinning!

Lee Shuster
Salt Lake City

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Received on Monday, 10 July 2006