What's the deal with my waterline?

[fmueller]

Your boat looks great to me with the smaller engine ...

My boat has a slight list to starboard ... when I mentioned this to my son when we did lots of restoration work a few years ago, he said "Dad, how fair do you think the molds were for these old boats ? " ...

[tartansailor]

Squat is S-L-O-W!
Now on my CD 25 The cabin floor is parallel with the bottom of it's keel.
Put a level on your cabin floor and see what you get.
Dick

[nhammatt]

The deal with your waterline? - it isn’t straight, from the factory. It’s almost as if they followed the line parallel to the sheer.
I had mine corrected with a laser level, it was nearly 2” high at the bow.
Every 22 I’ve ever seen has the same swoop at the bow.
Next time I’m near the boat, I’ll measure down from the stem fitting and post it for comparison.
Nice winter project ahead for you!

[wikakaru]

Thanks! I look forward to seeing the measurement and photos!

[Steve Laume]

The deal with your waterline? - it isn’t straight, from the factory. It’s almost as if they followed the line parallel to the sheer.
I had mine corrected with a laser level, it was nearly 2” high at the bow.
Every 22 I’ve ever seen has the same swoop at the bow.
Next time I’m near the boat, I’ll measure down from the stem fitting and post it for comparison.
Nice winter project ahead for you!

Having a rise in the waterline or boot stripe at the bow is an intentional feature. It is more difficult to do than a straight boot stripe and is quite pretty. There is certainly no reason to eliminate it unless you find it unpleasing for some reason.

Stern squat does slow down a boat. Adding excessive amounts of weight in the bow to counteract it also slows a boat down. Being low in the bow makes a boat squirrely and harder to handle. Keeping the boat balanced without excessive weight in the ends is what we should strive for, Steve.

[wikakaru]

Squat is S-L-O-W!
Now on my CD 25 The cabin floor is parallel with the bottom of it's keel.
Put a level on your cabin floor and see what you get.
Dick

Assuming the cabin sole and cabinetry surfaces are both level with the designed waterline, I'm seeing about 0.5 degree bow-up trim. Assuming the center of buoyancy is half way along the waterline (probably not correct, but it simplifies calculations), that equates to about 7/8" at each end of the waterline. Looking at the photos, the boat seems to be up about 3 inches at the bow and has zero bottom paint showing aft.

Maybe as a temporary fix I should try adding a lead pig (or, as someone suggested, a dead battery) up forward , and repair the waterline and boot stripe later.

--Jim

[kerrydeare]

... Maybe as a temporary fix I should try adding a lead pig (or, as someone suggested, a dead battery) up forward , and repair the waterline and boot stripe later ...

I'd guess that adding useless dead weight in the ends is not going to improve performance. Are you primarily concerned with appearance even at the expense of performance?

[wikakaru]

Having a rise in the waterline or boot stripe at the bow is an intentional feature. It is more difficult to do than a straight boot stripe and is quite pretty. There is certainly no reason to eliminate it unless you find it unpleasing for some reason.

Stern squat does slow down a boat. Adding excessive amounts of weight in the bow to counteract it also slows a boat down. Being low in the bow makes a boat squirrely and harder to handle. Keeping the boat balanced without excessive weight in the ends is what we should strive for, Steve.

Sounds like I need The Admiral to sit forward through a few tacks and see what moving weight forward does to the boat's handling.

When I look at the boat's drawn plans I can see that Alberg drew the boot stripe ever so slightly broader at the bow than at the stern, and it looks quite nice to my eye. In my case it looks like the bottom paint, not the boot stripe, is what's wider, and it doesn't look right to me.

--Jim

[wikakaru]

I found this photo of another CD22 on a click-through site that drives search results to a popular boats-for-sale web site. It looks like this boat has the same "bow smile" that mine does. Must have been that way from the factory.

Curving waterline on another CD22 from Brick7.jpg

[Steve Laume]

I raised Raven's water boot stripe a few years ago. It was not a flat line. Just striking a laser line and painting it would have been much easier than duplicating the small rise the factory had used. I don't think you have anything that needs to be "fixed" on that boat but the distribution of weight. Adding more weight to correct poor distribution is a losing battle, Steve

[wikakaru]

The bottom photo in this collage shows the Admiral acting as movable trim ballast. Unfortunately the water isn't perfectly smooth (not likely to happen on a Sunday) but the Admiral has the boat floating just about on its designed trim. Note where the vertical red lines I have drawn intersect with various deck features.

It would be nice if I could just redistribute weight on the boat, but there isn't much aboard except life jackets, dock lines and fenders, all of which need to be kept aft for easy access. I do stow my anchor aft, but it is only 11 lbs, so it won't make much difference. Based on the photos, I think maybe 0.5 to 0.75 Admiral Units (AU) of lead pigs under the V-berth next to the water tank might be about right. It's easy to change my mind if I'm wrong.

The waterline looks too low at the center point to me. It might be worth raising the waterline there about an inch and making it a straight line from bow to stern so the boot stripe doesn't foul with growth as easily. I wonder if Cape Dory made the boat a bit heavier than Alberg intended? Or if I just have more stuff aboard than I think I do...

I also had the Admiral sit on the foredeck while sailing, and I noticed a bit less weather helm going upwind (not that the boat has bad weather helm, just that there was less of it by changing the trim). There was also a bit of change in the response of the helm; not really bad, just different.

--Jim

Arietta trim.jpg

[MHBsailor]

Here's my CD22D at mooring for comparison - bow seems slightly elevated but there is no water in the tank under the v-berth. The Yanmar 1 GM (6.5 HP, approx. 65 lbs) is located under the bridge deck so it is better centered than lazarette- or stern-mounted outboards.

Please excuse the head of the mainsail poking out from the mainsail cover - we had 50 kt winds the night before. So glad I went oversize on the mooring anchor - one does sleep better at night

[wikakaru]

Here's my CD22D at mooring for comparison - bow seems slightly elevated but there is no water in the tank under the v-berth. The Yanmar 1 GM (6.5 HP, approx. 65 lbs) is located under the bridge deck so it is better centered than lazarette- or stern-mounted outboards.

Please excuse the head of the mainsail poking out from the mainsail cover - we had 50 kt winds the night before. So glad I went oversize on the mooring anchor - one does sleep better at night

Thanks for sharing the photo of your waterline! It looks like you have the same bow "smile" as I do, with the paint curving up as it gets to the bow. Cape Dory must have had some kind of template that they used to paint the waterline in that shape.

I've been considering getting a couple of bags of shot ballast that are used for wakeboarding boats and sticking them up under the V-berth just to see what happens. It would be nice to check the waterline against a laser level and see how straight it is.

Smooth sailing,

Jim