HELP! My boat only goes 5 knots

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Some of these the engine is pretty far fwd already, not sure if the case here. And he might have added a lot of battery.

Sure'd be nice if he came back to fill in the gaps!!!
 
Greetings,
Mr. S. From the OP: He changed out 2 group 27's to 4 6 volt deep cycles. VERY rough calculation of about 150 lbs. difference and from the 34' CHB's I've seen, he would only have at maximum 5' or so to locate them more forward of the original location. That's what has me scratching my head.
 
Greetings,
Mr. S. From the OP: He changed out 2 group 27's to 4 6 volt deep cycles. VERY rough calculation of about 150 lbs. difference and from the 34' CHB's I've seen, he would only have at maximum 5' or so to locate them more forward of the original location. That's what has me scratching my head.

That is one average sized person walking from one area of the boat to another. Hard to believe it would make that difference.
 
Agree very unlikely but we probably will never know. Maybe whatever he used to get boat speed started working again.
 
Forum: Taiwanese Makes 04-14-2013, 07:06 PM


His last post was a year ago...
 
I have a CHB 34, and I cannot conceive of the moving of just 4 bats about 2-3 feet for'd as having that much effect either. I wonder if the fuel tanks were also moved forward when he replaced this with plastic ones from memory, smaller, and in same position, but possible further forward..? Then again there might have been a tank breather issue as well starving the engine as a result - then the combined effect might have had the reported effect. Otherwise hard to explain power loss and altered trim and cavitation under load yet full rpm at WOT, when the basic boat was unchanged - other than the somewhat pointless swapping of props etc that went on. How on earth they thought the original prop etc which worked fine before could suddenly not was beyond me, I must say. Maybe the real reason was a bit too embarrassing to 'fess up to - is that naughty of me..? Otherwise why did he drop off and disappear..?
 
Greetings,
Well, the unknowns and the speculations have started so MY theory is his twin sisters took up residence in the v-berth...The only image I could come up with are Fiona and Flossie debating over who gets the last case of donuts...
th
 
Peter wrote;
"I have a CHB 34, and I cannot conceive of the moving of just 4 bats about 2-3 feet for'd as having that much effect either"

First there's the question "what if that's been done 10 times over the years?"

But over thirty years or so much weight and many things could get moved around by the above philosophy but probably the biggest offender getting out of trim is add ons. And after 20 or 30 years one could be shocked to find how far one's boat was out of trim. And probably there is room for stuff where the designer and manufacturer avoided putting stuff. Consider a V drive boat w the engines aft. The designer and manufacturer probably put things fwd to compensate for the weight aft leaving plenty of space aft to get filled up w stuff over the years aft. The obvious could likely happen and people don't often feel the need to consult w the designer before adding weight to their boats. Frequently a slightly undesirable situation could be made worse or even bad given the boat's history.

The Willard 30' line of boats had one or two models w the engine quite a bit further fwd than others. There's generally more space aft though and I think generally a boat is more seaworthy w an aft CG than a fwd CG. But some boats (like a 32 NT) have a big fuel tank in the Lazerette. Since fuel isn't a fixed amount of weight I wonder what the designer was thinking. Probably by the time there was room consumed by a gen set, holding tank/s, batteries, air conditioning and other stuff there was no more room left for the fuel tank/s.

One of my jobs at Uniflite (when I worked there years ago) was to move heavy installations around (dwg and design wise) to bring the boat's port/stbd trim as level as possible for most of the installations that would be required for a given group of options. Most boats went out w a slight list (all if ya wana to get nitty) but some went out w more. Always considered acceptable of course but no one knew what the owners over the years would add or remove from the boat. And of course when someone sights a whale to one side all 10 people aboard move as far as possible to that side. Never mind that the fuel tank on the other side was the only one low and the whale side full.

From pics on TF the most common out of trim condition I see is bow down.

My Willard has grooves in the plastic hull to make it look like a wood boat and not far above the WL (4" or so) there is an additional groove that is horizontal. I've thought for some time it could be trim and max load WL.
 
Some threads make you shake your head and wonder. This is one of them.
 
Island Eagle,

She sits at a similar water line to a another CHB in my marina. And when I throttle up in the slip same issue, 2800 RPM no load and only 2050 load...

Re stowing the batteries doesn't explain this post in my opinion.If the boat was dramatically bow down, it would have been obvious.

Nor would it explain the engine topping out at 2050rpm under load, nor the difficulty in steering to port as he mentioned in an earlier post.

I'm with Pete and RT on this, it doesn't add up.
 
A lot of people working hard on a puzzle that they'll never be given the answer on.
 
From the information given it looks like he swapped a 2.57-1 gear for a 2-1 gear. Peter what gear ratio do you have w what prop? A 23" prop w a 2-1 gear dosn't sound right but I'm not familiar in these sizes. I have an 18" prop w a 2.7-1 gear but only 1/3 the power.

Then there's the Paragon gear. From the pics I've seen of the Paragon gears they don't look like a planatary type gear. If so his LH prop and CC engine dosn't match up. Certianly he would have mentioned it if he had a different gear or ratio but nothing seems to add up. And no mention of working on the gear.

But I think his symptoms seem to indicate he changed gear ratios IMO. But that may explain the "cavitation" but not the "bow down". The cavitation issue could be from the prop speed being too high w a prop w too much dia. Is there away on the Paragon gears to switch output rotation direction? Can't imagine it but ......
 
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Hmmm,
I am also considering moving my batteries forward about the same distance. It would give me room to snuggle up alongside my beloved Volvo MD17.

I may have to get Fiona or Flossie to sit in the cockpit to counterbalance.
 
Eric, I haven't a clue what the gear ratios are in my box, (I'll look it up next time I'm down there), but it is a Paragon, and the only quirk I discovered, is if you leave the filler bolt out while you run her to get air locks out to re-check the level, the reverse no longer works - put said plug - actually quite a long bolt, obvious closing something vital off, and the reverse works again. The ratios seem perfectly matched to the engine, and I only have a left handed, 3 bladed prop, again unsure of diameter, but it seems, again, perfectly matched to the engine. Maybe you can work it out from the recent pic. That zinc anode is about 6" in max dimension.

On the matter of trim, I know is this hull is not very trim sensitive, as although admittedly I have both fuel and water tanks in the lazaret, I also added a new larger hot water cylinder and new heavier batts ahead of the engine, and put a 150litre reserve water tank in under the for'd cabin floor right up near the bow, which is usually full, and trim did not visibly alter. The only time I ever get cavitation is when I really rev her up in reverse - not something usually done. Mind you, if he is really revving to WOT while at the berth, I would not be too surprised with the vessel is restrained there would be cavitation both directions. One wonders how good that exercise would be on the cleats, cap rails, berth and bottom under the berth as well.

I really wish he would come back on and settle this mystery. Someone said they PM'd him, and it was moving the batteries forward. There has to be more to it than that.
 

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It might seem obvious, but are you sure your anchor is still stowed, and not hanging below the boat? This might slow you down and cause you to plow.

If this was the problem, it is not surprising the OP has not returned with an update.
 
Peter thanks and it really seems a puzzle. Tried to scope out the prop size but that zinc is too close to the camera lens to scale. That's a large shaft hole in the rudder. It's close enough to scale fairly well but you don't offer a dimension for that. There's lots of CHB 34s so someone should bark at the tree here w some reference numbers. But the guy is gone so what does it really matter? Beats talk'in about boaters bad manners though. However the show us your bottom thread is good right now.

Nice look'in prop and bottom except for that blister about 2".

AusCan,
Yup ... I wouldn't belly up to the bar w that one either and I'm quite open.
 
Peter thanks and it really seems a puzzle.
Nice look'in prop and bottom except for that blister about 2".

I knew someone would spot that. That one always catches attention - it's the biggest one she has, and it has been unchanged in over 15 yrs. When I tell the surveyors and Insurance co that, they settle right down.
 

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