Time it takes to fill ballast on a 26X???

[captronr]

Now that launching my 02X is imminent, I have some questions that I've not seen addressed here previously.

On the X, about how long does the tank take to fill?

Once you open the drain and the vent, do you go off and do other tasks, or do you need to watch it so it doesn't overflow into the cabin?

I would hope that with the lip on the vent area, that would be above the waterline, and hence would not overflow. Am I close on this?

If the weather cooperates, plan to rig and launch tomorrow!

Thks.
ron

[Compromise]

Ron,

The answer would be: It depends.....
How many crew on board, the amount of time it would take to fill the ballast would varyfor example; if it's just you and a 50hp motor around 5 mins. It has to do obviously, with how much weight you have aboard. I think the average is about 5 minutes. We keep ours in a slip with ballast in, but when we trailered, we'd open the vent and valve and go about other tasks. Keep an eye or should I say finger on it. When you can feel the water on your finger at the vent you should be good to go. We'd assign this task to one of the kds. Keeps them part of it!
Enjoy the voyage and post an update on how it went. Fair winds!
Brian

[Graham Carr]

I launch my boat with the fill valve open and by the time I park my truck and return the tank is full. I close the vent before leaving the ramp. Other then a bit of splashing, I have never had a problem with water pouring out of the vent. When I fill the tank in open water, splashing only occurs when conditions are rough.
Graham

[Craig LaForce]

Hi Ron,

I usually open the drain and vent on mine and then go to the restroom or something while it fills. The air wooshing out of the vent stinks pretty bad, so it is a good thing that you don't have to watch it.

I rock the boat a bit by moving around down below to help get any trapped air pockets filled, then cork it up. The boat originally came with a clear plastic straw that was to be used as a fill guage, but it is a pointles thing, you can see the water level once it is full. Plus the stinky air will stop wooshing in when it is full.

If the boat is being moved from a zebra mussel lake to a clean one (assuming any are left) I would make sure the bottom is clean and that the tank has been hit with whatever chlorine treatment is recommended to kill them off.

Sounds like this is a new boat for you. Main thing to be aware of is that this boat is influenced a lot by crosswinds. Try to approach from a direction where the wind will help you make the turn into the slip if you can. Rudder and centerboard down and practice will help with landings.
Sometimes backing into the slip will provide more control if the wind is severely fighting you. A good boat hook is also recommended.

Have fun.

[Catigale]

About 7 minutes. It wont overflow unless you are pathologically overloaded with stuff, all in the front of the boat.

After 10 minutes, go forward (2002 x onward) and check the ballast tank level of course.

[ALX357]

Or do the Frank special mod (and now mine too) of a passive ballast vent to the anchor locker drain, and you won't have to go forward to check the level or use the vent plug anymore at all. This mod is fairly cheap, but takes a bit of time and care to do right. Search for "Passive ballast vent" and "Alx357" in the thread history.
I attached a short ribbon (the same stuff made for tell-tales on the sails) at the gate valve (transom) which will enter the tube partially but stops short of the valve itself, as an indicator of when water is entering the valve, then when it stops being sucked inward and drifts out, the tank is full. On motoring above 8 mph to drain the tank, I just keep the throttle at a constant setting and watch the speed increase for around 6 minutes as the boat lightens until it tops out at a maximum speed to incicate an empty ballast tank.
No more trotting back and forth down into the cabin, remembering to plug the vent, having stinky fumes from the tank enter the cabin, and disturbing crew and passengers below geting past them or moving them to lift the vee-berth cushion.
The passive vent can be installed beside the original one, inside the overflow cup, same size hole, and if ever removed, can just be plugged identically to the factory hole. Leaving the factory original hole and plug unchanged allows a visual inspection of the ballast water if ever desired, and also visual inspection of the tank insides (flashlight and small mirror on rod).
Do it, 'will be the best mod you will ever have.

[Trouts Dream]

One of the tips I use on my 97X came from this board. If I am filing while out on the lake I reverse slowly and this fills the tank about 1 to 2 minutes quicker, but the best advice was to go forward when the tank is ful to 'burp' the tank then reverse again for about 45 seconds to a minute.
This has completely elimainated any water gurgling in the tank when we are anchored out overnight.

[Lease]

I really love the mods that I did to my '95X. I put the 4" gate valve on the transom, sikeflex'd the centreline plate valve shut, and ran a PVC pipe from the air bleed at the the companionway step, up the side of the toilet compartment. I can now do it all from the cockpit by simply pulling open the gate valve and watching the cassette tape streamers at the outlet of the PVC pipe. I also put a section of clear tube down at the step, but this is pretty much redundant as I've now demonstrated positively that once the streamers stop; it's full.

Same with emptying on the water. Once the streamers stop sucking inwards, it's empty. For me, it's the perfect system. Oh, and I usually reverse a bit when filling also. All in all, mine takes about 4 minutes to fill.

[tico]

What I did, I bought one cheap water heater leak alarm that works with batteries, I measured the wire and put it in the ballast hole (the vent) when the water reach the contacts it trigers an alarm, meanwhile I could do other shores while filling the water ballast on my 26x.
It is like a electronic reminder and cheap.

I did it my way.

Tico
Miami FL

[Frank C]

A great 'ease-of-use' mod, although routing a vent hose to the bow is very time-consuming.
Doing over again, I'd simplify my 'passive vent' by another magnitude.

• Drill a vent hole into the ballast tank, adjacent to the factory plug;
• Drill a vent hole into the top of the centerboard trunk;
• Add hose barbs into each of the new holes;
• Loop a hose between the two new hose barbs;
• Use the factory vent plug only as a 'monitoring' option.

Looping the hose between the hose barbs creates an airlock that will prevent any ballast draining via that hose, as long the plug and transom gate valve are closed.

[RickJ]

Frank - that's a very neat idea!

I have the earlier style X with the valve under the step (although I have the large transom valve, it appears to be an interim 97/98 build). I've been thinking of a passive vent - can you see any reason I should not add one at the forward end of the tank?

If this would work I think I would go with your centerboard trunk idea. One question though, how do you go about fixing the hose barbs in securely - do you just glue them in with 5200, or is there a better trick?

Cheers, Rick

[ALX357]

Frank and I are in agreement about the usefullness of a passive ballast vent, but we differ on the idea of where else it could be routed with success. IMHO, the ballast could begin to progressively escape thru any path that does not keep the vent hose's highest point ABOVE the ballast level when the boat is heeled over.
A ballast vent hose between the forward interior vent and the centerboard trunk would not keep the vent hose above the level of the water in the high side of the heeled boat's ballast tank, and water would be lost thru the centerboard ballast vent exit hole as the boat heels each time. ( UNLESS you ran it all the way up the mast support pole ? to the cabin roof, and back down to the CB trunk. )

His original mod, and my copy, having the ballast vent exit at the anchor locker allows a loop of hose to extend all the way up to the deck under the highest point of the prow, and back down to the locker drain, where a T fitting joins the air hose to the exit hole at the anchor locker drain. Any water that enters this hose while the boat is heeled, on either tack, will be RETAINED in the hose until the boat is righted, when that water in the hose will drop back into the tank. Only if the boat is laid over on its side at 90 degrees for an extended amount of time will any of the ballast be able to drain from this route. To prevent even this occurence, I installed a heavy-duty plumbing ball valve in the air hose above the tank, which can be sealed if heavy weather is imminent, by just turning the handle on the valve.

ONE OTHER problem you would have in venting into the centerboard trunk, is back pressure from the water around the boat, causing the exiting air to have to blow bubbles to escape, while the tank is filling with water. There would come an equilibrium when no more water would enter the tank, before it was full.
Then, when emptying water out the stern gate valve, it would have to suck the incoming replacement air from the trunk, until it began to try to raise water inside the trunk, which it would not be able to. It would be impossible to empty the tank this way at sub-planing speed. At planing speed, there might be air available to enter the ballast vent, but it would be intermittent.

Just bite the bullet, and do the complete mod with the vent up the prow in a loop and back down to the anchor locker drain.

[Frank C]

I actually used a threaded bronze hose barb. Drill the appropriate sized hole, that barb will just screw right into the glass. You can also buy barbs in threaded nylon, or a flanged version that you could seal to the glass, and then secure with 3 SS screws.

ONE OTHER problem you would have in venting into the centerboard trunk, is back pressure from the water around the boat, causing the exiting air to have to blow bubbles to escape, while the tank is filling with water. There would come an equilibrium when no more water would enter the tank, before it was full. ...

Guess Alex & I will just agree to disagree. If a short 3-ft hose might allow water to escape to the CB trunk, then do this instead. Route a 12-ft hose first to a loop under the portside v-berth (which will be above the level of ballast on port tack), then back to a loop on starboard side (likewise for stb'd tack), then finally back to the centerboard trunk. But I'd just as soon connect the two barbs with the coiled 12-ft of vinyl hose right under the fwd dinette seat ... it'll never dump any water, due to being airlocked.

As for the bubbles, Alex, did you forget that the X-boat has a compression tube up to the cabintop?

[ALX357]

OK duh, yes I forgot about that compression post, which would allow free passage of air ....

On the other hand, the back and forth tube would allow some water to be "jacked" out on each tack, the water that filled the hose past the u-turn at the side, and after a time would have the same result of losing ballast.

And the hull flexing would allow some water to be released, progressively on each tack, and expanding air would allow more to be released, so the airlock concept is not going to work. Upside down plastic coke bottles are technically airlocked, but will lose their contents pretty fast, and would even if the hole was smaller.

[Randy McCotter]

My 2002 X seems to take a little while to fill up with water, I'm thinking it will be topped up on May 19th..
Damn Canadian Winters.!!!!

Randy