ballast for rough waters

[Flipper4444]

Our utopia is on the St Lawrence river which can get pretty choppy. When it does, there seems to be no way to position yourself to soften the blows....that can be 'bone shattering'.

Has anyone ever thought about water ballast tubes in the bow to help reduce the 'lift & fly' off the crest of the first wave onto the 2nd bone crushing wave. It seems to help when there are warm bodies sitting in the bow, so I thought why not add permenant cold bodies under the storage up front. Any thoughts

FYI, I'm the kind of guy who has even thought of what a gyro/servo actuated spoiler on the bow would drop the bow sooner. Actually, I've thought about some pretty crazy modifications cuz it's what I like to do....but I must be stopped! It's just seems like the water ballast might be a simple way to start.

 

[rexsteiner]

it probably would soft the blow some. but on the down side you will probably get lotsa water in the boat. depending on how much weight and where you put it

 

[Flipper4444]

UPDATE...
I forgot that I posted this last year, but here's what I did and the results. I put 2 ballast bags under the open bow seats. Each hold 125 lbs of water. The results were remarkable. It SIGNIFICANTLY reduced the bone jarring pounding in rough waters and not once did it cause the bow to dip too far down into a wave. I also bought a quick pump that can fill or empty each bag in under a minute without having to remove the bags. I empty them whenever I will have people sitting in the bow. But for 2 people (driver and mate), the difference in ride is amazing. It cuts down slightly on the speed, but not noticably. I also had to make a couple of modification for it to work exactly the way I wanted it to, but well worth the time and effort. I'd recommend this to anyone wanting the option of smoothing out the ride when necessary. I'll provide additional info if anyone wants to email me at: flip at stny dot rr dot com