We just spent 6 days in Catalina. Meet an X owner from San Francisco who was spending 3 weeks there on his boat.
He said he had 7 adults on his boat a few months ago;
Two persons on the sliding hatch and it flipped upside down;
He had no water in the ballast;
He said insurance paid for new engine;
He said to carry a water proof VHf radio on your belt;
No one got hurt.
Made the point that when the boat flips, your installed VHf radio is useless, as the wiring is shorted.
There was a thread here a year ago where someone died under similar circumstances. When will people learn that the ballast is there for a reason? And you need to be cognizant of people's weight and the stability of the boat.
Wow. I guess Mac's warning about having ballast in w/ more than 4 people on board is valid. I always motor w/o ballast except when it is really rough conditions. This is good info. Glad nobody got hurt.
The reason the tank was not filled was that he just finished sailing and was empting the tank.
Maybe he was going to pull the boat out of the water.
I think you loose a few MPH at top speed when the tank is full not a few tenths.
This time we went to Catalina and did not tow the inflatable as usual but put it on the front deck. We go about 10-11MPH towing and got 14-15 with the extra weight holding down the front and no drag. I will never tow again that distance.
We actually had to turn around and go back to Catalina when we decided the weather looked good and leave in the afternoon. It was 4-5 seas and 15-20 winds but it was too rough to fill the ballast 6 miles out as the boat was being tossed too much when I slowed down. All I could think about was being turtled. I just turned around and went back to Catalina and left in the calm morning.
Last edited by BK on Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
Bob,
That was prolly the best choice regardless of ballast. I definitely agree, never try to fill the ballast tank in those exposed conditions.
However, I'm not convinced that I need ballast depending upon a given sea state. Rather, it's the size of crew that determines, for me. Four persons is my max crew for ballast-empty motoring ... I that "boat loading" is amply stable for any reasonable sea state. Add a 5th person, I'll add ballast and slow down by the 4 mph that weight demands.
IMO - a person is a person, child or adult matters not.
(Kids weigh much less, but I'm vastly more risk-averse when they're aboard! )
Nice call Capt. Returning to port is a prudent maneuver. Never try to empty or fill ballast in rough conditions. You can't afford to have shifting ballast at any time.
There's room for six adults to sit on the cabin sole of the boat in dicy conditions. They are more comfortable and it improves the boat's center of gravity a lot to get crew off the decks when things get rough. The backrest cushions will fit there nicely for padding.
How much you loose with the tank full will depend a lot on your motor. We have the std 50 hp and loose 4 knots of speed from tank full to tank empty. You also will burn more fuel for the same speed. There are very good reasons to operate the boat with the tank empty.
An X can be operated without ballast in all conditions very safely. We have over a 1200 nautical miles of motoring under our boats bottom (we unfortunately motor far more than sail) all with my family of 5 on board, all done with no ballast. We've been in a wide range of conditions, waves from every possible direction, through currents running 7 knots with really cool whirlpools. Never in all this time under way have I ever felt the boat was ever at risk of rolling.
I only fill the ballast for 3 reasons, first to sail, second under power when the waves are 4'+ and closely spaced (this keeps the boat in the water, without the ballast it wants to launch off every other wave), and third at anchor to settle the motion. If the ballast is full and we are going to travel any substantial distance (5 miles or more) I always empty the ballast.
Another problem with emptying the ballast with 7 people on board and going 8MPH, is that the water in the tank will shift to one side to where the most weight is. This would be like having another 2-3 people on board and all on one side of the boat depending on how much water is in the tank.
In fact, this is what probably happened!
I never thought about this being a problem before; the weight of the water in the ballast being shifted to one side when emptying due to the unbalanced weight of the passengers.
That 10 minutes when the tank is draining is when you need to pay close attention to the sea state.
A month ago we were going from Friday Harbor to James Island. We had been sailing with the 45 boat BlueWater Yachts rendezvous fleet so the tank was full. They made a left to continue their around Shaw Island sail while we turned right to go get some park time for the kids. With the sails down we throttled up to about 9 knots to drain the tank. My wife and youngest son were up on the bow enjoying the ride along with the dog on her first boat trip. The tank was about 1/2 empty when we were hit by a perfect side on wave. Usually this would just cause a bit of rolling motion. This time I could feel the boat roll to starboard as expected but then the ballast shifted with it and the boat kept rolling to about 45 degrees. Everyone was able to quickly grab a lifeline. My wife went for the dog rather than the kid. Mike ended up hanging half over the side by the lifeline, but no one went in the water. After about 5 seconds the boat quickly righted it self and everyone laughed it off. My wife did however decide to put on her inflatable PFD when she reclines on the bow from now on.
This isn't critical of DD's story above ... in fairly flat water I'd also choose to adjust ballast with just some added vigilance, and a random wake should be okay if anticipated. But changing the state of ballast is a potentially dangerous time for all our Macs, so I strive to find fairly flat water before draining the tank ... even more important before adding ballast, since the boat must lie ahull for those 7 minutes. BK mentioned turning back rather than facing coastal rollers, or trying to add ballast in those conditions ... the correct choice in my view.
I find the same issue on SF Bay. As afternoon winds build the chop becomes too steep (2 feet?) to risk a half-full ballast condition, either draining or filling. Therefore, I just accept the seas as they are, and leave the ballast as-is whether that happens to be full or empty.
In some cases I've delayed hoisting sails simply because conditions were not appropriate for adding ballast ... point being that I'd rather take the conditions empty than endure the half-full process while filling. Also, it can actually take longer to fill in rolly conditions, saying nothing of the ride during that process.
I don't see how operating w/o ballast with 4 people or less makes you any less safe than a motor boat. Also, I think you can fill ballast with relative safety under most conditions. It takes approx 5-8 minutes and if you deploy the board & rudders, and run the motor with just enough power to keep the bow into the waves, you should be Ok. Of course, you don't want to use too much throttle, otherwise the water won't fill. Granted, you're vulnerable during the period when you have partial ballast, but in that 5-8 minute span, it's a judgement call whether to rough it out, taking the necessary precautions to fill ballast or run for shelter.
Do you know that if you prepare to fill the ballast by opening both valves, then shift into reverse and run astern about 1 to 2 mph, you can fill the tank in about 3 minutes?
Life can end or drastically change in a heartbeat.
