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Hi Alec. Don't worry, I've got a thick skin and don't offend easily. I
welcome criticism and appreciate it in the spirit given. As for the free board,
I've got huge ballast tanks in comparison to a "K" boat for exactly that reason.
I'm trying to get the hatch as far up as possible. ABS recommends 30 inches, but
I'm afraid I'll never get that much. I'm hoping to get the hatch opening 21 1/2
" above a calm sea. Even at that height, I need a splash guard. The sea isn't
that calm very often, and with no tower, a wave could wash right in. ( bummer
)
I won't know the exact capacity of the ballast tanks until I weld them up
and fill them with water. I have some calculations though that look promising.
The down side to that is I need a lot of compressed air to blow the tanks. I
have room for 2 x 100 cu. ft. scuba tanks inside ( plus
two 30 cu. ft. pony bottles as back-up and escape tanks, and outside
there's a space under the rear fairing for a 120 cu. ft. tank.
The approximate capacity for the rear ballast tank is 175 gallons, while
the front tank has less because of the viewport tunnel making the tank about 80
gallons. These are rough numbers but I'm pushing the sides out to get as much as
possible. It's a hard space to measure cubic inches with all the curves.
Anyway, I'll get as much as I get. If it turns out it's not enough, I have
an old sketch of how I might add an inflatable tank to be used once on the
surface ( like a big tractor inner tube ) but it throws the center of buoyancy
off. Testing with the real deal will tell me what I need to do. My test
model (weighted more or less to scale ) worked fine, and put the
waterline right where I wanted it. Hope it works ! Frank
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