How do swamped boats sit in the water (or on the bottom)?

[mikezohsix]

There's a post running about getting water over the bow now in "genreal BB topics" that made me start thinking.

What happens when you swamp a 19 ft boat with a 175? How do they sit in the water?

I moore my boat, so there's always a possibility. My 175 tracker got swamped once when neighbor borrowed the battery to start his boat and didn't hook up the bilge pump when he returned. It just sat low in the back - real low - but after pumping it out and draining the gas and oil tanks all was fine.

What can I expect with my 2000 Javelin Renegade 19?

[mikezohsix]

^^^

[Todd Morgan]

That's a good question.....and the answer is....according to the NMMA rating plate, as long as the weight capacity is not over reccomended, the boat should sit level and upright.

The kicker being "eqaully distributed".

[Lockjaw]

My basshawk sat low, essentially the hole in the back for all the cables to come out, was under water. Not completely, but under enough that the bilge pump wasn't going to pump out more then was draining in.

Mind you this was an 18 footer rated for a 175 with a 200 Venom hanging 9.5 inches off the back. I had a basketball in the jack though and it sat fairly level.

The bottom line is I needed at least another 500 GPH bilge pump to have even gotten close to winning the battle of it filling up faster then I could pump it out, and getting the boat on plane, forget it.

That's what happens when you hit submerged rocks. It was like, oh this isn't going to be good, and it wasn't. I am getting a GPS for this year, and my new to me boat.

The other part to that post you referred to is the heavy "seas" so to speak. If you stuff a boat and it doesn't break, and its full of water, I think you are pretty doomed unless you can pump it out fast and keep the waves for swamping you even more.

Be careful.

[LookOutForShoals]

My old procraft was swamped while tied up to the dock, it has a "leak" and the one afternoon the waves were rolling in, and rolling over the back after it had taken on a little water, and it didn't take any time at all to get completely full of water.

It sat upright in the water, after switching on the bilges they would have pumped it out except for the fact that the hole with all the cables being underwater I jumped in and stood on the bow by the trolling motor and it got the rear out of the water, but the bow also dipped below the surface....I had to back up a couple feet to get both the bow and the stern out of the water. But it didn't sink.....

[javelin225H.O.]

My javelin 20 sits low enough as it is in the back with a 225 hung on it. Depending on how much fuel is in the fuel tank, it sits just a tad below the top cap in the back. I can tell you that I was at Gaston tuesday and stop in the middle of the lake by the dam with 2 and 3 footers rolling behind the boat. Not once did one of those waves come over the transom. That was with a almost full tank of gas and another person.
Only way to test it is to pull the plug when its on the trailer back it down the ramp so the boat is floating with the trailer attached. Therefore if it sinks when its full of water you can pull it out of the water with the truck.