Stern weight

[jerridsc]

What are some amounts of stern weight A25 owners have attached to their sterns; swim platforms, dinghy’s and Davits, outboards, any other weighty things back there? My A25 is powered solely by a 25hp, 4 stroke bigfoot mercury outboard. While I can get to an acceptable cruising speed (8-9 mph) working the motor pretty hard, I don't have much, if any reserve power. Current engine is listed at 170 lbs. I’m considering a 50hp at 230lbs. The 25hp bigfoot would be a good auxiliary motor for use with the inboard diesel as some have done.

[DesertAlbin736]

Weight on Dolce Vita's stern: 1 Gig Harbor hard shell dinghy, +/- 100lbs including the stabilizing fenders attached to the sides, 1 pair of Garhauer lift davits, +/- 30 to 50 lbs (?), a 2.5 HP Tohatsu dinghy ouboard, +/- 30 lbs mounted on homemade bracket on swim platform. Add misc luggage & gear, PFD's, etc stowed below decks in the aft cabin. My main concern in your case would be stress placed on a transom that was not designed to accommodate a 170 lb heavy outboard, much less a 230 lb one. Our 24 HP Yanmar inboard diesel pushes our full displacement version hull at 6.5 knots hull speed in flat calm water. With a non-planing displacement hull, theoretical hull speed in knots = 1.35 X sq root of waterline length in feet. A25 waterline length is about 22 ft, making nominal hull speed about 6.33 knots, or 7.28 statute MPH.

DSCN4447 (1280x960).jpg

[jerridsc]

Good points. Thank you for responding. My “outside the box” approach to repower may have to be reconsidered. I’ll keep readers here apprised.

[Dieselram94]

Are you considering reinstalling a diesel? That would be my plan hands down. I’m going to hang a Honda 9.9 longshaft on mine as a kicker, however the stress it will place on the transom has kept me from actually doing it until I can get the time needed to properly reinforce the inside of the transom by laminating coosa board. Well at least that’s the plan as of right now anyways. Any pictures of how you installed tour current outboard?

[jerridsc]

5D05E53B-913B-4221-9016-0F01A0CD93CB.jpeg

51BEBCF6-36DC-45E4-94D0-3C99CA7D7AA7.jpeg

F272A1C7-F885-48A5-BB7D-28AF40BFC080.jpeg

. Here are a few pictures. All the support stress is at the top of the transom near the back deck and below swim platform near where the hull attaches to transom, well backed behind. Not much stress on the broad expanse of transom itself. Ive had 500lbs on the swim platform with no deflection observed. The white covering on the swim platform is just for show. The real structure is below. My bigger concern is less about strength and more about trim. My goal is to have a much quieter ride and less expensive than a diesel repower. I realized I would have to give up the A25 purity award, which I respect in all the other A25’s. Lots more room in the pilot house as well.

[WillieC]

Surely trim can be compensated when under way? I suppose at rest could be less than desirable.

The added space in the cabin would be amazing but pretty soon another boat makes more sense. This from the guy who keeps pouring blood, sweat, and beers into our old boat.

[ssrig]

Airplanes are always loaded in the proper weight and balance, so are boats so more weight that you have out back can be adjusted with more stuff up front. These boats have a propensity for an aft C of G due to the aft cabin that we love to fill up with stuff and then there is limited space up front to compensate.
When we are leaving on our big summer trip I try to cram as much into the nooks under the bed as possible and try to keep the heavy things out of the aft cabin which sure is hard, a 5 gallon water jug strapped to the forward pulpit helps us and we make 6 flats of beer and fill the space behind the water tank ( beer is expensive up north) and I keep a lead acid battery under the vee berth for our dingy motor. The aft cabin storage items are the big and bulky ones that aren’t necessarily heavy. So why not an extra 100lbs back there? Just bring more beer!