How to Load a boat.

This is our 1st time "camping" for more than overnight in our boat.

I had planned on strapping the cooler (150quart) to the swim deck with food &
drinks -- and putting all the "gear" out of the way up in the cuddy.

Someone said it's better to put all the load towards the rear and leave the bow
light -- that seemed odd to me; but as a relative novice to power boating;
thought I'd ask for a concensus.

Thanks
-josh

The best way is to load the boat evenly... bow to stern, making sure that
you don't overload the boat. The capacity of the boat should be on a placard
visible from the helm. Too much weight fore or aft will give you serious
control problems at anything more than displacement speed. If you have an
I/O or outboard, you can make up for some weight problems by trimming the
drive.

Have fun. We'll be doing the same thing next week.

--Mike

"Josh Assing" <XjoshX.TakeThisOut@jAssing.com> wrote in message
news:44c874hqjrlppvu95b2ufa1ufv0ru6ihf0@4ax.com...
> This is our 1st time "camping" for more than overnight in our boat.
>
> I had planned on strapping the cooler (150quart) to the swim deck with
> food &
> drinks -- and putting all the "gear" out of the way up in the cuddy.
>
> Someone said it's better to put all the load towards the rear and leave
> the bow
> light -- that seemed odd to me; but as a relative novice to power boating;
> thought I'd ask for a concensus.
>
> Thanks
> -josh
>