CONTINUOUSWAVE

Hello All. I'm new to CW, but I read a lot of the threads. I appreciate any input on the below.

I purchased a 1989 OUTRAGE 20 that was rebuilt after hull damage. I purchased the boat as-is and do not have any further information about the previous damage. The boat is generally in beautiful condition and currently has a 2006 Yamaha F150 with low hours.

The concern is boat sits heavy in the back, and also that it lists heavily to the starboard side. The batteries are in the console and there are no other major add-on's on either side. The transom is low profile and typically sits only about 2-inches clear of the water line on the starboard side. I live on the Atlantic Intracoastal Water Way in Florida and have yet to take out the boat to the ocean, because even little waves on the AIWW can bring in water over the transom. The boat sits low enough that drain plugs are plugged 24/7, as they are 5-inches below the water line.

What is most likely causing the listing and back heavy status of my Whaler?

How can I correct it?

I have gotten a few opinions locally, but none had particular expertise in older Boston Whaler boats. The common feedback is that the foam has (potentially a lot of) water on it and I need to remove it and find the source. I wanted to reach out here before drilling holes in the transom.

Please help, thank you!!

The transom of a c.1989 OUTRAGE 20 is wide enough to accommodate twin engines. I used to have that hull, although fitted out as a REVENGE model with a cabin instead of a center console as an OUTRAGE, and the boat had twin engines. There was plenty of freeboard at the transom. I don't recall the exact amount the transom was above the water line in static trim, but I do recall that no water ever came over the transom--except once when I had to make a very odd maneuver in which I had to go in reverse at rather good speed and back into some two-foot waves. Then some water was shipped over the transom. But to have so little freeboard at the transom that small waves can splash over and into the splashwell sounds abnormal.

It is normal that a Boston Whaler boat at rest (or in static trim) will have a slight list to starboard. That usually results from a slightly higher weight to starboard from rigging cables and the battery, and usually the cockpit sump is on starboard, so the slight list directs water into the sump compartment. But a pronounced list to starboard is not normal.

If there is nothing visible on the boat whose weight and location could account for the list to starboard, and if there is nothing visible whose weight and location could account for the lack of freeboard at the transom, there could be some added weight in the hull that causes the list and stern-down trim.

The added weight could be due to some ingress of water into the foam interior, or it could be due to the method used to repair the hull damage. Before taking any action, read the FAQ on this topic:

Q3: Is There Water In The Hull?
http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/FAQ/#Q3

The first step I'd take: open the deck pry-out access plates in the center deck panel that covers the fuel tank cavity; check for signs that water has been sitting on the top of the fuel tank. Wet foam or lots of mildew on the tank are indicators that water may have gotten into the fuel tank cavity.

The next step: pull the boat onto a trailer, then using a small plastic-head hammer, tap the hull all over while listening to the sound of the hammer striking the hull. By interpreting the resulting sound--as either hitting something firm, something hollow, or something soft--you can assess the hull integrity.

Third step: if there is a direct indication of water ingress or you can reasonable suspect there has been water ingress, drill a test hole or two in areas where water might be present. The hole can be small, not more than 1/4-inch. Cover the hole with a plastic bag and check back in a few hours to see if any water runs out.

Unfortunately, if a significant amount of water has collected in the space between the inner and outer hull sections, it is not easy to remove it. It is fairly common that older Boston Whaler boats might have increased in hull weight over the years due to some ingress of water and absorption into the foam space, and finding the hull to be heavy by 50 or 100-lbs is not unusual. But to have a pronounced list and rather severe down-by-the-stern trim may be due to more than just 100-lbs of water.

As I recall the shape of the splash well on the 20-foot classic hull, there is an almost full-width splash well, and in the center portion and adjoining the transom there is a smaller recess that creates a slightly deeper sump area; that is where the transom splash well drains are located. With a hull in normal trim, and with the splash well drains open, the freeboard at the transom ought to be such that the drain openings are just at the water line, or, if below the water line, only below the water line enough to let water come into the shallow center recess of the splash well. To hear that the drains are four or five inches below the waterline would be indicative of a significant change from the normal trim on the boat.

The source of added weight could also come from a repair itself, if the repair method used a lot of heavy laminate and resin to make the repair. But a huge amount of added laminate and resin in a repair would need to have been used to get so much stern weight.

Let's see if we can approximate the amount of weight needed to push the stern down four inches more than normal. First we estimate the area of the stern:

Hull beam = 7-feet 4-inch, or 7.33-feet

Hull length = 20-feet 3-inch; here we guess that the water line length is about 16-feet. Of that 16-feet we can figure that about half of it is being submerged in the stern more than normal, or 8-feet.

Now we have an area of 7.33 by 8.0 feet or about 59-square-feet. We assume that at the transom the hull is down by 5-inches at the transom and by 0-inches at 8-feet ahead of the transom (midpoint of the waterline). The average depth is 2.5-inches. Let's round up to 3-inches or 0.25-feet.

The volume of the hull that is immersed that seems abnormal is then 59 x 0.25 = 14.7-cubic-feet. When the hull immerses deeper like this, it is because it has to displace more water to generate buoyancy. And the water weighs 62-lbs-per-cubic feet. Now we know how much heavier the hull must be:

62-lbs/cubic-feet x 14.7-cubic feet = 911-lbs.

You are looking for something in the hull that has added 911-lbs to the stern half. Of course, it could be just as simple as the hull has taken up 14.7-cubic feet of water, or 7.48 x 14.7 = 110-gallons of water.

If there is that much water in the foam, you can see the problem with trying to get it out by drilling a hole here and there. Waiting for 110-gallons of water to come out by slowly seeping out of quarter-inch holes could take many years.

Before you do anything, you should take some photos and post them.
Photo of both sides from behind showing list.
Standing 10-15 feet behind the boat (in the water).
Take a tape measure and show the distance between water line at rest and top of transom.

Describe the load in the boat. What,besides the engine,is in the rear or the boat. Battery? Gear, rear stern seat?

UPDATE: my analysis above neglects the V-hull shape, so the calculated weight need to cause immersion at the stern of about 5-inches would about half what I figured, or about 460-lbs.