Balance your boat

[Wizard]

I see lots of posts on speed, repairs, reconditioning, etc. of bass boats. There are complaints about rough riding boats or boats that don't reach the performance levels they should. I haven't seen a post on how to balance a boat for performance or comfort. Balance of a boat greatly affects performance and comfort. They go hand in hand in that if you balance for performance, the comfort level goes down and vice versa.
Balance is determined by where weight is placed in the boat. Where the gas tanks are located and the gas load have the greatest effect on balance. Tanks in the rear of the boat cause the boat to run nose high at speed. Tanks under the driving seats cause the boat to run flatter at speed. The next aspect of boat balance is weight in the storage lockers. The heavier the load in the forward storage, the flatter the boat runs. Weight to the rear makes the boat run higher. The normal way to balance the boat is to equalize the weight forward and rear taking into account the normal gas load. A boat properly weighted fore and aft should not have a lot of bounce on the water. Keep in mind that a boat with tanks aft was designed to run nose high and forward tanks mean the boat was designed to run flatter.
Another way to think of it is a nose high boat has more performance and nose lower gives more comfort.
Weight balance from side to side also affects performance and comfort. In this case you do want to equalize weight on each side. This will help with chine walk at high speed and side to side roll in waves.
Now, do you have to balance a boat to have fun fishing? No!  If you want more out of your boat? Yes!

Wizard

[Donald Garner]

I really like the way my Stratos runs.  My gas tank (36 gal) is mounted under my seats.   Its pretty much balanced as much as I can get it.  The trolling motor batteries (2) are on one side the cranking battery and oil reservoir tank is on the other side with the on board charger.  I have my moving bait rods (11) in one rod box.  The other rod box carries my soft plastic rigs (11).  The two rear storage boxes carry all my baits.  Got soft plastics on one side and crankbaits, spinnerbaits on the other side  everything is kept in Plano boxes.  The big center storage box on the front deck keeps the rain / cold weather gear dry.  I got the life jackets as well as the dip net and boat cushion in there also.

Performance wise its got a great hole shot IMO and her WOT Speed is 63.5mph.  I mostly cruise between 45 - 55 mph.  That Yamaha 150 VMax will drink the gas & oil when running at WOT for any distance.

[Wizard]

I had the same Yammer Hammer on my 95 BassCat. It's a beast and if it lasts the first year, it is bullet proof thereafter. Don, if you do decide to re-balance the Stratos, you can move some weight to the forward storage. The boat rides great now but would ride even more comfortably with more weigh forward. You might lose 1-2 mph on the top end. On LOZ, most boats are set up for comfort and stability in the waves.

[Princeton_Man]

I really like the way my Stratos runs.  My gas tank (36 gal) is mounted under my seats.   Its pretty much balanced as much as I can get it.  The trolling motor batteries (2) are on one side the cranking battery and oil reservoir tank is on the other side with the on board charger.  I have my moving bait rods (11) in one rod box.  The other rod box carries my soft plastic rigs (11).  The two rear storage boxes carry all my baits.  Got soft plastics on one side and crankbaits, spinnerbaits on the other side  everything is kept in Plano boxes.  The big center storage box on the front deck keeps the rain / cold weather gear dry.  I got the life jackets as well as the dip net and boat cushion in there also.

Performance wise its got a great hole shot IMO and her WOT Speed is 63.5mph.  I mostly cruise between 45 - 55 mph.  That Yamaha 150 VMax will drink the gas & oil when running at WOT for any distance.

Mine's much the same. About the only difference is I have two tanks that combined are the same total volume. I usually run the starboard tank dry first figuring I'm a little heavier on the starboard side to start with.

[merc1997]

great reminder of how your boat is loaded affects how the boat rides and performs.

with me, i just puddle around anymore.  when you can only run 30 at night, it does not make too much difference, and in the winter, 30 is about all you want to go most of the time anyway .

bo