WIS FISHERMAN
New member
Hello All I am new to the forum and hope i am posting in the correct catagory..
I have a 91 sylvan 15' aluminum deep v fishing boat. Ive had the boat for many years, and for many years it was stored outside. last year I decided to replace the rotted out wood floor and carpet. I went even futher and stripped the boat all the way down to the hull removing all of the saturated expandable foam, from the factory. I replaced the foam with a closed cell styrofoam and stacked the made to fit sheets vertical to create support for the plywood floor. I used hardwood plywood just under 1/2" thick and treated it with a resin epoxy paint to seal the wood for years to come. recarpeted and painted the hull inside and out. it turned out beutiful. like a brand new boat...
Until I put it in the water.......
I dont know if I changed the buoyancy, or the center of gravity or what i could have done to change the way the boat rides.. the boat at rest will lean with me sitting in the side consul driver seat. I have to fill the 50 gal livewell on the pasenger side just to get the boat to balance out . i had to move the batteries to the passenger side as well. and the gas tank to the driver side. this helped to ditribute the weight a little. if you step just a foot off center the boat starts to lean to that side and the closer you get to the edge the worse it is. Its almost to the point of being dangerous. if you have another person in the boat and move to fast you could throw the other person out of the boat. The boat may be a little lighter than it was by removing the waterlogged foam. but it does seem to be sitting a little higher in the water. i was thinking the foam being at or below the water line has created more buoyancy and physics tells us that the foam wants to be on top of the water not held under the surface. but im not sure . I was going to cut a access panel down the center of the boat where there is no foam and just experiment with sand bags to add some weight to bring the center of gravity back to normal. the boat was never this tippy and trust me i know the boat is not going to tip , just feels dangerous and scares my friends when they go fishing with me... anybody that can offer some sound advise please let me know what you think or if you have experience in this problem.
thanks again
I have a 91 sylvan 15' aluminum deep v fishing boat. Ive had the boat for many years, and for many years it was stored outside. last year I decided to replace the rotted out wood floor and carpet. I went even futher and stripped the boat all the way down to the hull removing all of the saturated expandable foam, from the factory. I replaced the foam with a closed cell styrofoam and stacked the made to fit sheets vertical to create support for the plywood floor. I used hardwood plywood just under 1/2" thick and treated it with a resin epoxy paint to seal the wood for years to come. recarpeted and painted the hull inside and out. it turned out beutiful. like a brand new boat...
Until I put it in the water.......
I dont know if I changed the buoyancy, or the center of gravity or what i could have done to change the way the boat rides.. the boat at rest will lean with me sitting in the side consul driver seat. I have to fill the 50 gal livewell on the pasenger side just to get the boat to balance out . i had to move the batteries to the passenger side as well. and the gas tank to the driver side. this helped to ditribute the weight a little. if you step just a foot off center the boat starts to lean to that side and the closer you get to the edge the worse it is. Its almost to the point of being dangerous. if you have another person in the boat and move to fast you could throw the other person out of the boat. The boat may be a little lighter than it was by removing the waterlogged foam. but it does seem to be sitting a little higher in the water. i was thinking the foam being at or below the water line has created more buoyancy and physics tells us that the foam wants to be on top of the water not held under the surface. but im not sure . I was going to cut a access panel down the center of the boat where there is no foam and just experiment with sand bags to add some weight to bring the center of gravity back to normal. the boat was never this tippy and trust me i know the boat is not going to tip , just feels dangerous and scares my friends when they go fishing with me... anybody that can offer some sound advise please let me know what you think or if you have experience in this problem.
thanks again
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