<Gil wrote:
Dave, how deep is the water in your bilges??? ;-)  A 40% increase in real
world weight over advertised weight seems extreme.>

We draw 6 1/2 feet so are a real full displacement hull. The waterline had
some growth on it when we bought the boat so I have to assume that it was
low at our 72000 lb purchase weight.

I assume that the "brochure weight" was a dry weight as a 58' hull built
with 2 1/2 glass in the bilges could not be as light as they claimed, IMHO.
On the other hand it could have been a WAG as these boats were built without
a marine architect from an existing Taiwan commercial hull. It's likely that
no one really knew what they weighed. We have 15,000 lbs of concrete in the
bilges glassed in place before the rest of the interior and bulkheads were
added. Was this part of the "guestimate"? I have no idea.

So if we assumed the 66 was bone dry and empty then the weight increase
isn't bad. 1500 gals of fuel and 360 of water ad a bit right up front ;-)

As we did a full inclining test, roll period test and have the computer runs
to show the boat has sufficient stability with our roll tank I'm not the
least bit concerned with the weight "increase" as I suspect it was a paper
one vs. real world.

Much of the tankage is below the water line so adding fuel/water just
increases the stability. We did all the tests with full side tanks just to
make sure we would be OK.

In our recent trip down to Venezuela the boat performed way about my
expectation is 10+ foot beam seas. Nary a roll over 10-12 degrees except
when we would occasionally fall thru a waveset that had no back sides :-(

Swan Song is tender at low roll angles like all full displacement boats.
However it takes 500 lbs initially on the rail per degree of roll which goes
to 600 by 3 degrees and keeps increasing rapidly to 1500/degree at 8
degrees. By 10 we were beyond my ability to ad weight on the rail. We topped
at about 10,000 lbs from a combination of water in barrels and 20 batteries
on the rail. So it gets stiff quickly :-)

Our down flooding angle is now 42 degrees (was 30 degrees) and I can add
snorkels to the engine room intakes to increase that to 70 degrees if
required in really bad weather. We have 1/2" tempered laminated glass in the
pilothouse. So we are snugged down pretty well. In our recent trip to VE we
didn't have any water on the boat in the 10'+ seas. Very little spray
either. We don't have wipers but the salt spray wasn't a problem on the
windows. A once a day fresh water rinse took care of any. Our plastic chaise
lounge stayed on the foredeck for the whole trip. It never moved and was not
tied down in any way. As Nancy said "if the chair goes I'm getting off". So
you see I have a much higher person to answer to if Swan Song doesn't
perform to her satisfaction ;-)

In a nutshell we pretty much did the full USCG tests for stability and down
flooding to make sure the roll tank, with it's 1500 lbs. of water on the top
of the pilothouse, would still be well within the offshore limits aka over
200 miles. We have this stability even if the 1500 lbs is all on one side
with the boat heeled over.

I'm happy with the results and so is the Admiral. Swan Song has far greater
sea keeping limits that either of us ever want to encounter. So no worries
on that part.

Cheers
Dave & Nancy
Swan Song

Do you have a website?

Ron Rogers