How much does weight matter?
 

How much does weight matter? We all could lose a little weight,... I mean on our boats of course. on a 9000 lbs boat what does 100 lbs do? 500 lbs? 1000 lbs?
Thanks

I read somewhere Formula said every 250lbs was worth 1 mph on their Fastec hulls.

Depends on the boat.

A little lightweight boat could be 2-3mph for 200lbs. and a significant difference in handling too.

Surely, 200lbs isn't gonna really effect a 9000lb boat.

Found this.


http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/004267.html

Looks like 2000 lbs off a 9300 pounder boat with 1000 hp would be 10 mph increase.

by your formula eq that would be 8 mph so they are close.

I just need to find 2000 lbs to throw off my boat.

Like said it depend on the boat. My Biese drag boat is a total different boat with just one of my kids riding along.

Toss the 500 and 1000 lb fat chic off your boat, you'll see a significant speed increase and probably save a ton on fuel and food bills at the same time! ;)

Aerodynamic drag and hydrodynamic matters too. We can get another 1-2 MPH out of a 37AT just by playing with or removing the windscreen.

Swapping from 280 tabs to 380 tabs, as well as adding normal load tools, spare parts, anchors, lines, fenders, spare fluids, two extra batteries, and a fair sized stereo...
...is taking 3-5 mph off of my top end pending water conditions. I don't care though. I'd rather be prepared than chasing every last decimal point on the GPS speedo.

Remember:
Water: 8 lbs. per gallon
Fuel: 6 lbs. per galon

I also noticed my jeep gets better mileage towing a 24 pantera than my 25 crownline. And they are essentially same weight. So wind resistance against the part of the boat above the water plays a significant role as well. So if you have fat chicks and they like to stand up and show off their huge a$$es you have a double speed penalty...something to be said for spinners...

I know it makes a huge difference in my top gun. Just getting under a half tank it's like an entirely different boat than full.

If I didnt take 800 pds of beer I could hit light speed.

Not only will the given weight matter it will also depend on where the weight is. If you and or remove a given weight from the rear of the boat the effect should not be as drastic as adding or removing the same weight from the front of the boat. I try to keep everything that I can toward the rear or at least behind the center of gravity.

I need to go on a diet, I may be able to gain 2 mph!

Remember that sea water is denser and weighs more than fresh water .

And sea water is at sea level.

Believe it or not, many forget about that performance advantage in of itself.

Problem is I can hold it forever. No net gain

Sydwayz, I know we are talking about weight in this thread...but did you see a performance decrease using 380 tabs vs 280? Dont want to start a whole thread just for that.

I almost always run my tabs neutral. The length difference between the 280 and the 380 alone is enough to scrub a few 10th if not a full tick. If I was running a kilo, I'd likely take them off entirely.

Thanks not sure if i want to make the jump to the 380's.

On the other end of things, rotating mass is another weight issue. Loosing weight in the drivetrain = more HP. Just costs a lot!

On the other side of the coin, heavy wave crushers, while slower, tend to ride better than ultralight potato chip boats...

Where the weight is removed from also matters, look for example at the Formula 242. They're two slightly different models with the same hull, the SS and LS/SR-1. Both are the same weight, but the LS/SR-1 model is 2 mph faster than the SS model all things being equal. The SS has a much larger cockpit and much of that size is gained by pushing the dash forward 1' 6". This small change doesn't allow the boat to carry the bow as well and slows it down.

So with that said, i would say that removing weight from the bow is going to have a greater effect on speed, than say the engine compartment.

So what is the speed difference between the 04 and earlier OL 42 Legacy vs. the 05 and newer epoxy hull? I've read the weight difference is 1000lbs.

With that much beer I usually hit 88mph and ride the time machine with doc. It only goes to the future though.

so if you keep the fat chick,s in the back of the boat it will go faster?

Mike your PM box is full .

I love CG and weight threads. I have been fooling with this for 2 years. I bet many people have 3-5 MPH in their boats and just dont realize it.

I laugh at the guys spending $6000 on headers when they can just take all the JUNK out of their cuddy and achieve the same thing free. When I put new power in I relocated the batteries to the back up against the transom then used the space under the back seat for tools, amps and spare oil. I dont have anything stored in the cuddy except maybe a t-shirt. I also took all the seats out and used a hole saw to drill all the frames in the plywood. I took 210 pounds of plywood out of the seats, spare wire and stereo equipment. (yes, I weighed it) The wire and plywood was gone and the amps were relocated under the back seat. As mentioned earlier, the weight in front of the driver is all bad weight and the weight behind the back seat is good weight. Of course, this is in a deep V. I am sure stepped boats are different.

thanks,just cleared it.

4 MPH @1200 lbs

http://features.boats.com/boat-conte...uterlimits-42/

I took my 380 tabs off and put 280 tabs on and gained 4 real MPH, i never use my tabs and was thinking of trying a couple of speed runs with no tabs at all.