lead or zinc balls in hull help

[JeffN]

Let us know what you find. I'm curious anyway.

 

[Finest Kind]

My boat has them too, standard Grady install for boats of this era with bracket. Weight of the lead shot in the front of the boat helps reduce slamming and helps counteract the add'l weight "added" to the back of the boat due to leverage of the motors sitting farther away from the transom due to length of bracket. Problem is you can't get at the corroded bags holding the shot to replace/repair the leaks in the bags. So some of the shot will roll out after every trip in rough water.

No big deal, just keep an eye on it.
Lift up your step in the cabin and scoop them out when they start to build up around the bilge pump, you just don't want them to get trapped under the bilge pump lever and perhaps force the pump to continue to run dry.

 

[JeffN]

Makes sense I guess. Anybody know how much ballast they put in say a 25' boat with a bracket. Mine was an I/O so I should not have any in there. I have not seen any shot yet and guess I would have by now. All you can do is keep bailing it out I suppose. Be interesting to see if the boat handles differently as the weight comes out. I still think they should have glassed it in or something originally. The brackets came on sort of fast IIRC so evidently most manufacturers were just screwing the brakets on the hull designs they had and ballasting them out.

 

[richie rich]

The added leverage should have been taken care of on the design desk, not an afterthought.....

Finest Kind, where exactly is this shot on the baot...I have a 25 with a bracket and she's opened up now for stringer repar, so it would be a good time to get at it....just can't see where?

 

[Finest Kind]

The added leverage should have been taken care of on the design desk, not an afterthought.....

Finest Kind, where exactly is this shot on the baot...I have a 25 with a bracket and she's opened up now for stringer repar, so it would be a good time to get at it....just can't see where?

At Grady, my guess is the bracket boats are the afterthought.
I imagine the open-transom mounted engines were the only way of making them when the original molds were built, and until Grady redesigned the molds when they went to the Euro Transom style (1990?), the bracket boats and the open transom boats all came out of the same mold.
So, in order to compensate for the leverage/weight factor of adding the bracket and motor, they added the lead BB ballast to the bow.

Don't know exactly where the bags of shot are located, somewhere up in the bow I guess. The BB's accumulate in the bilge around the foward bilge pump (located under the bottom step in the cabin).

 

[Grog]

Finest, I'm suprised I haven't seen you out there this year.

1990 started the sport bridge which may have added enough weight towards the front so they didn't need the shot anymore. A better solution would have to been to use or most likely design a bracket that added enough flotation so the shot wasn't needed.

 

[JeffN]

I don't know if you guys remember the early bracket days of not. The fishing magazines were pushing outboards and brackets constantly. In fishing magazines of the time if a boat had a standard transom it was no good, had to have a bracket and outboards. I would guess there was money in it for the magazines perhaps via outboard advertising. Anyway the first brackets were very low and the back of the motors were in the water at low speed and at speed they were sucking water. Then they made the brackets carry the motors higher but you still had the boats themselves being behind the design curve. It took several years for the bracket/hull designs to catch up. The demand was there but the tech I don't feel was. Just look back at the different design evolution; low brackets, higher brackets, floatation brackets, eurotransoms, does the hull stop before the eurotransom or go all the way to the end of the transom, etc. The hull bracket/eurotransom designs look quite a bit different now than in the late 80s. Just one of the reasons I am leery of people installing brackets on 80s boats that had regular transoms with out boards or I/Os. I'm just not sure how the things will handle.

I think the manufacturers were trying to meet the market but it took a while for design to catch up.

Just my two cents though.

 

[BobP]

Nothing changed on the boats from ballast days to no ballast, I suspect Grady had a concern at one time, then later the concern was deemed unfounded.

Just like flat bottom euro transoms going V hull shaped(?) One day a concern, next day no such concern.

If theres is ballast in my bow, it is hidden under the Vberth compartments (3) flat floors, no where else it could be, been in all the other places.

The brackets provided a tremendous gain in storage space at the stern by evicting the motor and relocating it back 24 inches.
Alloy brackets are a low cost light weight effective way to make a bigger boat out of same hull.

Very few Sailfish models sold prior to 1994 had the motors in cutout, even though same single hull mold. They were all brackets. Bracketed boats have the added strength of full transom tie- in to gunnel all around on three sides.

 

[richie rich]

The bracket was a last minute addition from what I'm hearing before they changed transoms altogether. But what I don't understand about the way they bracketed the transom is why they cut out the notch and then added in the full transom cap over the back.....my 88Sailfish shows how they cut the notch, (looks like they used a sawsall with the way the cuts waver) and then glued in a 2x4 cross member behind it and the rest of the full transom. Why wouldn't they just lay it up in one shot? It's an ugly fix when you look at it closely.

The design change gave a ton of room though...I have as much room if not more than the 28's do in the work area....

 

[JeffN]

I am not arguing that brackets are not a good thing. Just that the market was there before the hull design changed and the manufacturers were behind the curve and trying to get a product out quickly. ie the quick and dirty cutout to full transom fix noted above. I would agree that Sailfish after the advent of brackets were mostly bracket boats. When did the Sailfish go to the SeaV 2 (or whatever the new hull is called) hull?

 

[BobP]

The hull mold, not liner or cap, was one way, full transom.

Then they sawed the notch out for outboards, hoped they didn't use a sawsall, perhaps an automated router.

For I/O's , they routered out a different opening.

Different molds for different liners and caps.

 

[richie rich]

no router used on this one...definitely "hand crafted"....the inner gunwale or cap where the trim pieces go were also cut the same hand crafted way......regardless, why cut it out in the first place if you're putting on a bracket....unless they cut several ahead of time and got an order for a full transom mount?

 

[JeffN]

I took the cabin windows out this spring to replace the plexy in the front, put in new sliding window track, and reseal around all the frames as my windows were leaking. Believe me when I tell you the rough openings for the windows were not art work. In addition when I repowered my transom was wet and needed to be redone. I asked the tech about what he found when the engine etc was removed where he thought the water was entering the transom. He said the holes for the intermediate unit were sealed well but the holes for the cockpit drains (they are underwater on this vintage 25') had no sealer at all. I would hope and guess that the workmanship is better presently. No CAD/CAM in '83 I think.

Trust me I am not knocking Grady quality or reputation , I have had my boat a long time and have really enjoyed it. All in all it is a very good boat. It is 26 years old now and still looks good (I think). When people ask about what used boat to buy I tell them to walk around the docks and see what older boats present the best. Then speak with the owners. But that said my boat does have some issues that date from construction.

 

[whitey]

i can tell you is ung the praises of grady white for a long time.then,i bought my 25 trophy pro.i bought the 24,the salesman promised me the boat will ride much better than the 22 sea farer i had-the salesman lied ! i tried everything to make that boat ride better,huge trim tabs,everything,then i traded it in on the trophy pro 25.i had wet feet constantly,the welds kept breaking on the hard top-not under warranty either,everytime the top broke,the wires had to be removed from inside the pipe,then rerigged,after it was welded.i had cracks appear everywhere.constant problems with electrical systems.fuel leak at the vent hose,vent hose actually chafed through at the stringer.that wasn't cheap.then,the back end of the boat seemed to sink further in the water,i had someone look at it,the person explained to me the bracket was bad,from being painted with the wrong type paint,the bracket had huge holes in it.had the bracket replaced,the transom was shot-moisture meter was "pegged",the wood was rotted beyond belief,the stringers were rotted,the deck was soft-the bulkheads were shot-etc...big check,real big check !! i never thought i would ever have these kind of problems with a grady ? i had an incredible amount of money in that boat,the term "upside down",was me.as a former loyal grady owner,i can tell you this,i would never recomend a grady to anyone,not after the experience i had with that trophy pro.i allways thought grady was an above average builder,i allways believed thier boat were the best made,i was wrong,very wrong.it's strange,members of the boating buisness,surveyors,service people,all speak poorly of grady wite,yet the owners of the boats speak so highly,i can't seem to understand that-blind faith ?

 

[Finest Kind]

Hi Jimmy. Welcome back

 

[johnmc]

WOW did I open up a can of worms with some you upset grady owners.
I do like my grady trophy pro for the most part. I don't like the way it will digs into a wake or rough sea( 5 ft to 6 ft) and bite hard in the front and turn you so hard it almost throws people out of the boat .I never had a boat that did that I think its from the deep V and the way it porpoises . I was thinking of adding 3 inches to the trim tabs. Anyone have theses problems?
thanks again
I did have the fun of replacing my shifter shafts this spring . now that was fun :cry:

 

[JeffN]

Hi Jimmy. Welcome back

LOL - Sorry guys I did not mean to bring that stuff on.

 

[richie rich]

Too late Jeff...the Grady police will be all over your posts from now on.... :lol:

 

[BobP]

Richie, bracket boat transoms were not cut, why would they be?

Only I/Os and outboards.

Any Grady outboards with the alum trim cap on the top of transom cutout, was a router cut out transom, seems to me.

 

[BobP]

John, you may be expecting too much in those seas from a 25 foot outboard.

Only salesmen will say a Grady is suited for everyone's need. Do you believe salesmen ? Then you lived and learned, just try not to blow too much in the process. Salesmen don't give a crap as long as they get their commission, and they did.

If you are driving the bow down with tabs, the more the bow will steer the boat, until it is dangerous and out of control.

You will always have some mild bobbing I call it, not porposing, with 1000 lbs cantilevered weight off the transom where the running surface of the boat starts nearly 3 feet ahead of that weight. The tabs will only do so much, you may be better served keeping fuel cells mostly full - try it.

If you are still not happy, dump it, check out some old motor on transom Makos, they always had deeper V hulls if that's what you are looking for. The ultimate boat for no- porposing are inboard powered boats since the weight is biased more central so hull responds with nearly no delay to rise and fall of seas.