It seems amazing to me the number of yachts I’ve stepped on over the years that have a permanent list. Goodness knows why but it always seems to be on the starboard side! Poor trim with the stern or bows down is something that I see quite often as well… It’s worth having a good look at your boat once she’s afloat. To see if she’s listing or her trim means she’s stern up or down. This can easily be done whether she’s alongside a pontoon or on a mooring; once all your cruising gear’s aboard and she’s fueled, watered etc. Checking what she looks like trim wise with all your crew in the cockpit can be a fine idea, too… Having been lucky enough to sail several brand-new production yachts ‘straight out the box’. They can have these problems: One had a list to starboard. It may have come from the non-standard inline galley fitted in the saloon. The second yacht was of higher quality; hence the builders allowed more owner bespoke choices. She was down by the bows; then proved herself rather disappointing in sailing performance. After speaking to the owner of this lovely boat; once I’d delivered her. The owner mentioned that he’d had a solid workbench complete with vice etc. fitted into the fore-peak. Thank goodness, he hadn’t had a lathe fitted! But the builders should have thought a bit more, was my immediate feeling…
Personally, I feel that having bad list on a yacht is less forgivable than poor trim. This problem is usually due to poor stowage of gear (agreed that often some of this is essential!). Unless you’ve changed something weight wise internally or externally permanently on a re-build which is so radical; that it’s impossible to remove the list with a re-stow of movable equipment. Then you need a rethink on what you’ve done to mess up your boat. Our families 50’s built (pre-war designed) Dutch clinker boat ‘Blauwe Slenk’ was fitted with a diesel engine rather than her original lighter petrol engine when we bought her. After a long re-fit I spent a couple of seasons playing around with internal lead ballast up forward trying to trim her properly. Just trying to stop her hobby-horsing (rocking badly from bow to stern) whilst going to windward in the short steep Channel seaway. It’s certainly possible she never sailed as fast as she had originally! Fore and aft trim is also a factor in helm balance, and tacking ability. If your boat is hard to get through the eye of the wind, try ballasting the bow, but if too hard headed (possibly with lee-helm); then trim her by the stern. This holds less true in modern yachts, most are broader in the stern with flat aft sections (often accommodating two double aft cabins!). This type of boat may show an inch or so of forefoot; and maybe a sure sign she’ll probably slam in a seaway. Not that surprising with a flat bottom and all that weight aft. My pal Adrian mentioned as an aside: that he once put too much ballast in ‘Sally’ (she is Vertue No. Two, 1937!), to balance the heavy old Volvo she had at the time. When she took a wave off Norris Castle, just as his lady crew, with hair freshly washed, popped up out of the fore hatch. He didn’t have time to yell “Watch Out” before green water engulfed her. Many sailors who regularly race their boat or have been dinghy sailors in the past are usually very sensitive any overloading happening. Multihull folks even more so! Most cruising yachtsmen are also aware that it’s better not to have too much weight at the ends of their boats. I’m still amazed when boat owners decide to alter either their accommodation, fit a generator, a wind-vane self-steering, hang an inflatable dinghy on davit’s, or have a large radar, solar panel, Sat coms. etc, an array right on the transom; especially on small boats… You only have to look around any mooring or marina to see often this is what’s happening. I realize that most owners of long distance sailing yachts know that this weight is all a tradeoff. Hopefully they understand their lack of sailing performance maybe due to all this gear; that they feel they need… I became more aware of all these visual signs over forty years ago. Stemming from sailing an engine-less 22ft’er across the Atlantic several times. Realizing that when my little boat was loaded up with everything needed for a long passage; she was often a couple of inches down on her designed waterline. Maybe that wasn’t too bad after I read that iconic pioneer of long distance cruising Eric Hiscock was disappointed that his ‘Wanderer II’ floated ‘a foot’ down on her waterline when she had all her cruising gear aboard. My tiny boat and I sailed much faster at the later part of each leg as items such as water, food and cooking fuel were consumed. Any strong wind and big seas at the beginning of each of these long legs were much more of a worry; these big seas weren’t dealt with as well by my little machine! More worrying perhaps is when boat owners decide to change and fit a big radar dome on their mast, or up the standing rigging spec.a couple of mils., or perhaps fit an In mast Mainsail furling system. Maybe done without even consulting the yacht’s designer about their yachts stability. In practice this is quite common. Perhaps with radar you are damned; if it’s on either at the stern or on the mast. I realize that it also can be unrealistic to ask a naval architect about upgrading your rigging; or when fitting an in-mast furling system. Having a new mast can be a major expense. Many people would do the math before they’d consider it. It’s worth remembering thought that your cruising boat may look a capable (even sexy!) long distance machine, if you’ve fitted this gear…but she probably doesn’t sail as fast as designed though. Much more importantly, perhaps she may invert more easily… Many modern flat-bottomed yachts can cope with more weight in the stern given their shape; more sea kindly older yachts with finer ends don’t deal well with poor trim. Not unsurprisingly most yachts sail better on one tack than the other too! In the past differences wooden hull shape made this happen. Old irregular GRP molds unfortunately had the similar problems. Though your lovely modern GRP boat comes originally from a lovely computer designed and built mold; and they are said to be precisely identical from one side to another. It seems obvious to me and many others that at end result this doesn’t always happen! If you’re painting or working on a modern production yachts on the waterline or hull; whilst refitting just do some measuring. Then realize you are living in cloud coco land if you believe that they all have the same hull shape on each side. Agreed modern computer aided design eliminates many of these problems. But one man wielding his eye is still all you have if it’s aluminum, steel, Ferro-Cement or wooden! I know this because of talking to my pal Adrian Morgan. He’s one of the few still building traditional wooden Clinker boats in Ullapool. Boat building thank goodness is still an art; as well as perhaps slightly more of a science nowadays. Ade mentioned that he restored a cold molded Folkboat once and made a template to fit a bulkhead, assuming both sides of the hull would be the same. Not so. He mentions that the eye is very poor at assessing symmetry (good at hanging pictures horizontal). And there’s an old boat builder saying “You can’t see both sides of the boat at once” which is just as well, as often the apprentice would be given one side to build and the master the other, resulting in some serious differences. His knows his own boat ‘Sally’ is most definitely a little asymmetrical, but you’d never know unless trying to match waterlines when antifouling. I’m haven’t raced/sailed enough modern light-weight long enough to be an expert on them. But a boat is surely just a boat. Please remember to look at how you ‘float your boat’ whether it’s power or sail. Master Mariners’ have to consider these problems all the time whilst loading or unloading large vessels; whilst bringing us the majority of our goods via the sea…
