Cool ballast convenience

[JakeX14]

our 03 outback ls apparently has a small leak in the hull and it surprisingly
works to our advantage.. The bottom of our hull fills up with water over night
and when we our wakeboarding our wake is like 1/2 to 1/3 bigger than it was
before. it's freaking sweet, im guessing their is about 500 - 750 lbs of free
ballast in the back of the boat while its got the bow up in the air. Their is a
downside though, obviously this needs to be fixed.. but our auto bilge pump
sometimes runs the battery dead while overnight. anywho its basically free
ballast and our draining tank is our bilge.. ha ha!

is their any severe down side to this i am unaware of besides the fact that
if water interacts with the engine..?

[JakeX14]

my 02 cents -

you're "free ballast" will eventually cost you some money...

i'm not arguing but how so?

[viking]

I'd find the leak NOW before your bilge pump quits on you and you find ur boat swamped. Might be as simple as the shaft seal leaking. Might not cost you a whole lot now but leave it unattended with "deferred maintenance" and be ready with your wallet :(

[DOCDRS]

ahhhhh , if your battery is dead how do you start your engine in the morning?
you must jump it, if its leaking that much then its just a matter of time before your boat sinks.......leaks only get worse.........fix the leak, put a fitting, ball valve, on your drain plug so you can open it when you want" this free ballast"......trip your bilge breaker so the water stays in your bilge........then reset it when your done.......1 your battery will last longer and 2 your boat won't sink and save you costly electrical and motor repairs.......but I always like a good joke :)

[sandm]

if this was my boat, it would already be out of the water. leaking boats=fail imo..

this is how that leak will eventually cost you more cash....

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy164/RanchDweller/swampboat1.jpg

[squeeg333]

I'll bet that boat throws a MEAN wake!

[viking]

UGH - that looks like an outback? Makes me sick :(

[JakeX14]

I'll bet that boat throws a MEAN wake!

It throws an amazing wake for the time being ha ha
this happens every year to our boat, we know how to treat it, all we
have to do is tighten one bolt and were good to go, we're supposed
to do this every year but we haven't done it for a while so it's leaking again.

it's not like we're oblivious about the situation though, we check the water
height every day and turn on the bilge. Very soon we are taking our boat out
anyways. (this leak has happened to our boat before, it's not in the hull)

@sandm we are on a glass lake. lol that lake they are on is pretty intense.. :p