Boat Capacity Placard

[cpatten]

Just wanted to get some feed back on this, my 08 LSV says it will hold 13 people (I find this hard to believe) or 1800 pounds. If I fill my 750 and two 400's I am 1550 and I know there are people out there running a lot more ballast than me. Should I be having concerns about how much weight is in my boat?

[jester]

The number or people and weight are calculated by the Length, Width and Beam of the boat. It really does not take into account that SC builds their boats to float. A few years ago a member posted photos of their Moomba that was caught in a storm and was full of water. It is still a wonder how he even got the boat started.

Now with that being said if the Coast Guard and or local police check and you are overweight they may give you a ticket. But they are more worried that you have enough life vests for everyone onboard out and they can get them on in a rush.

The more weight you have in the boat the lower you sit in the water and the easer it is to take a wave over the bow. I know people that run full ballest and have 10 people onboard without issues.

[moombadaze]

conditions should dictate how much weight with comon sence tossed in.

[mmandley]

Agree with both. I run well over 3K in my boat with ballast and people and the police at the lake i frequent know it and i kow them. I treat them with respect by not blaring my music at the docs, not blatently drinking in front of them, and staying well away from the no wake area when boarding. They hassel the people that have a bunch of people in the boat and or acting like fools and being obvious they are breaking the laws. The most our Marine patrols have said to us is, do you have enough vests for everyone. Ok be safe and have a good day Mike.

The worst they have said to me at Lake Billy Chinook is Mr Mandley its a 350 fine for someone sitting on the edge of the sun deck while your boat is in motion dont let it happen again. LOL

[NCSUmoomba]

There is quite a bit of discrepancy for these plates in my experience. Some of them include ballast, some of them exclude ballast, and I think the weight of a "person" has increased over the years. My plate says "10 persons, or 1350 pounds, inlcuding gear and ballast." So that averages to 135 pounds a person. Well I weigh around 200 pounds, that that throws that off. Also, we all have a lot of gear. I would count aftermarket stereo equipment in this weight, probably racks and lights too, plus an anchor and coolers. That being said, I probabaly have around 250 pounds of "gear." So If me and my gear is in the boat and so are about 6 of my friends (honestly, 135 pounds?) the I am at capacity, with no ballast. My boat came with 350 pounds of hard tank ballast from the factory. Now I regularly run about 1000 pounds of ballast (more if surfing) so at times, I am DOUBLE the weight of the capacity plate. Now I don't really have any issues, but we do take some rollers over the bow quite often. Which is not hard when the bow rub rail is only 3-4 inches above the water. That just goes to show that I am asking way too much of my Outback.

My buddy's 2003 Super Air, has a capacity plate that reads "10 persons or 1450 pounds." So apparently the average weight of a "person" has gone up 10 pounds since 2001. Interestingly enough, in his owners manual, it specfically reads that this weigh capacity is in ADDITION to the factory installed ballast. Why the difference? Oone would think that the manufacturers would use the same standard?

[bergermaister]

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg5212/docs/secg12142010.pdf - somebody guessed it right...

I've also read somewhere that for non-commercial vessels over 20 or 21ft (can't remember which) that the placard is just considered a "recommendation" and it is not enforceable. I don't know if I buy into that though. May have been an old law or varied state by state.