Center of gravity question

[airborne_angler]

I noticed last night that the wood in the seats on my 10ft Jon Boat is dry rotted. Im opting to go to WalMart and buy some of the plastic seats to install.

I noticed walmart sells a 7" pedestal for mounting the seats. Would this be a good thing to do with my 10 footer? Or will it throw off the center  of gravity and make the boat that much more unstable? I sit pretty low now as is(see pic) ,what could potentially occur if I were to raise the seats up  on a pedestal?

[Bass Smacker]

I think that it will throw you off center and make it real wish washy

[airborne_angler]

I thought the same thing and thats why I posted the question. Im new to the whole boating thing and my 10 footer is already wishy washy with just me in it.

[Raul]

It 's not going to be a good idea.

[Long Mike]

It's simple physics. The further you move a mass from the center line of the boat, the more unstable it will be.

[Fish Chris]

Ya' know, I agree that the taller pedastal will make it a bit less stable than if you were to be sitting lower.... But I think it would really depend on how stable your boat was to begin with.

My little 12 ft v-hull was very stable, and so I put one of those 7" pedastals on top of my rear bench like you mentioned, and proceeded to take the thing in all kinds of waters, including saltwater, although some of the roughest water I ever got caught in was on big lakes, and being downwind of a big storm blowing in uexpectedly. I did that about 5 times in 10 years ! Really scary, but I never rolled it.

Those pedastals are not too expensive. You could always get one at Wal-Mart and see.... Then if it was just too tipsy, you could always bring it back, for a refund.

Peace,

Fish

[Raul]

Ya' know, I agree that the taller pedastal will make it a bit less stable than if you were to be sitting lower.... But I think it would really depend on how stable your boat was to begin with.

My little 12 ft v-hull was very stable, and so I put one of those 7" pedastals on top of my rear bench like you mentioned, and proceeded to take the thing in all kinds of waters, including saltwater, although some of the roughest water I ever got caught in was on big lakes, and being downwind of a big storm blowing in uexpectedly. I did that about 5 times in 10 years ! Really scary, but I never rolled it.

Those pedastals are not too expensive. You could always get one at Wal-Mart and see.... Then if it was just too tipsy, you could always bring it back, for a refund.

Peace,

Fish

But his boat is not a 12 footer Chris, it 's a 10 footer. You should have seen my friend Pedro when he mounted and sit on that pedestal and he 's not as big as Airborne, he didn 't flip over just because I was counterbalancing otherwise I 'm certain that he would have fallen into the water.

[Jeff_NHBA]

Raising weight in a boat will raise the center of gravity causing the boat to become less stable.

[Tom Bass]

Airborne Angler,

My opinion is not to raise your seat height. Your stability in such a small boat will be diminished.

I have a 12' V-bottom Lowe "Sea Nymph" with a 9.9 HP Merc. I was very happy with it until I took it out on my local lake during a windy day. I darn near flipped it over running at about 15mph when the chop and the wind were just right for disaster. I fish Lake Norman and it's a big lake. Too big for little boats like mine in windy conditions. I am searching for a bigger fishing boat.....

[Catt]

I've hunted and fished out of a pirogue which had only a 20 bottom with a 28 beam and 12' in length. The mean of propelling a pirogue is done with a push pole while standing, in order to do this one must learn not to make any sudden moves, forward/backward or side to side.

While a rise of 7 will change your center of gravity one must then learn to limit their movements, you would not want to be running around a lot.

[Bean Counter]

I bought a 10 foot jon boat at a garage sale and thought I could use it as a one man boat on small ponds. I put a pedestal seat in the middle and raised it 6" the same as I did on my 12 footer. It was so tippy I couldn't use it till I lowered the seat back down. A few inches makes a big difference on a boat that small.